i;i,i.:-D  V 


A 

c 

A^= 

A^ 

C/) 

o 

u  ^ 

—I 

X 

n  ^•^— 

m 
30 

JO 

U  == 

n  — 

o 

z  ^= 

o 
■  z 

Q  

!  ( — 

9  

■  1 — 
'.  3D 

6  — - 

S  3D 

9  ^ 

!  O 

4  ^ 

=  —1 

:  ■< 

u 

r 


f^- - .vi^i'mi3i:"s^is.-«.'An-> ■-    '^\-\''S  - ~ 


■■v,-:"£>i-i^f<'i:vy;^v   u.^-^'-.;-:  £.'.\l  •'luLc.-:  isi.'^: 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


REPORT  OF  THE   PSYCHOLOGY   COMMITTEE 
OF  THE  NATIONAL   RESEARCH   COUNCIL 


BY  MAJOR  ROBERT  M.  YERKES 


Reprinted  from  The  Psychological  Review,  Vol.  26,  No.  2,  March,  1919.] 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALFORNU 

AT 

LOS  Ai^GELES 

UBRAitY 


^'•>      ■.•>'        >75      ,"        , 


>  _  1     ,  t       . 


Ed./ Psych. 

[Reprinted  from  The  PsychologicAtSS^^w,  Vol.  26,  No.  2,  March,  1919.I 


REPORT  OF  THE   PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 
OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH   COUNCIL 

Respectfully  submitted  to  Dr.  George  E.  Hale,  Chairman  National  Research  Council 
BY  MAJOR  ROBERT  M.  YERKES, 

Chairman  of  the  Psychology  Committee.^ 

I.  Organization  of  the  Psychology  Committee 
The  Psychology  Committee  was  organized  in  April,  1917, 
at  the  request  of  the  Chairman  of  the  Research  Council,  be- 
cause of  the  appearance  of  psychological  military  problems 
and  the  formulation  of  plans  for  participation  in  the  war  by 
the  Council  of  the  American  Psychological  Association. ^ 

The  constitution  of  the  Committee,  together  with  such 
changes  as  have  occurred  by  reason  of  resignation  or  addi- 
tional appointments,  Is  Indicated  below:  James  R.  Angell,^ 
J.  McKeen  Cattell,  Raymond  Dodge,  Shepherd  I.  Franz,  G. 
Stanley  Hall,  Walter  Dill  Scott,  Carl  E.  Seashore,  Edward 
L.  Thorndike,  John  B.  Watson,  G.  M.  Whipple,  Robert  M. 
Yerkes,  Chairman,  and  the  late  John  W.  Baird,  Vice-chair- 
man. 

Simultaneously  with  the  organizing  of  the  Psychology 
Committee  of  the  National  Research  Council,  the  Council  of 
the  American  Psychological  Association  authorized  the  ap- 
pointment and  designated  the  chairmen  of  twelve  committees 
of  the  Association  to  deal  with  various  aspects  of  the  rela- 

^  Grateful  acknowledgment  is  made  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  to  Cap- 
tain Richard  M.  Elliott  for  his  assistance  in  the  preparation  of  this  report. 

*  An  account  of  the  events  which  preceded  the  organizing  of  this  committee  and  of 
its  early  activities  was  published  under  the  title  "Psychology  in  Relation  to  the  War" 
in  the  Psychological  Review,  25,  85-115,  March,  1918. 

^  Angell  and  Scott  were  appointed  in  October,  1917.  Cattell  resigned  in  October, 
V  1917.     Baird  was  appointed  Vice-chairman  in  March,  1918. 

83 


X  4;  i^^  ±  ^ )  ^ 


•      •      •  • 


84  REPORT  OF   THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

tlons  of  psychology  to  the  war.  With  a  few  exceptions,  these 
committees  were  ultimately  organized  by  their  chairmen. 
Subsequently  all  which  attained  complete  organization  and 
became  active  were  constituted  subcommittees  of  the  Psy- 
chology Committee  of  the  Research  Council.  This  was  done 
for  convenience  and  efficiency  of  administration,  since  the 
chairman  of  the  Psychology  Committee  of  the  Research  Coun- 
cil was  also,  during  the  year  191 8,  President  of  the  American 
Psychological  Association  and  in  this  capacity  responsible  for 
the  operation  of  the  Association's  war  committees. 

The  following  list  of  committees  which  have  been  active 
for  varying  periods  during  the  military  emergency  at  once 
supplements  the  history  of  psychological  service  previously 
published  in  this  journal  and  supplies  a  scheme  for  the  pre- 
sentation of  the  results  achieved  by  the  Psychology  Commit- 
tee and  through  its  cooperation. 

1.  Committee  on  psychological  literature  relating  to  mili- 
tary affairs.     Chairman,  Madison  Bentley. 

2.  Committee  on  the  psychological  examination  of  re- 
cruits.    Chairman,  Robert  M.  Yerkes. 

3.  Committee  on  psychological  problems  of  aviation,  in- 
cluding examination  of  aviation  recruits.  Chairmen,  Harold 
E.  Burtt,  George  M.  Stratton,  and  Edward  L.  Thorndike 
(serving  successively). 

4.  Committee  on  the  selection  of  men  for  tasks  requiring 
special  aptitude.     Chairman,  Edward  L.  Thorndike. 

5.  Committee  on  recreation  in  the  army  and  navy.  Chair- 
man, George  A.  Coe. 

6.  Committee  on  problems  of  vision  which  have  military 
significance.     Chairman,  Raymond  Dodge. 

7.  Committee  on  pedagogical  and  psychological  problems 
of  military  training  and  discipline.  Chairmen,  Charles  H. 
Judd  and  William  C.  Bagley  (serving  successively). 

8.  Committee  on  psychological  problems  of  incapacity, 
including  those  of  shell-shock  and  reeducation.  Chairman, 
Shepherd  I.  Franz. 

9.  Committee  on  problems  of  emotional  stability,  fear 
and  self-control.     Chairman,  Robert  S.  Woodworth. 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  85 

10.  Committee  on  "Propaganda  behind  the  German 
Lines."     Chairman,  James  R.  Angell. 

11.  Committee  on  acoustic  problems  of  military  impor- 
tance.    Chairman,  Carl  E.  Seashore. 

12.  Committee  on  tests  for  deception.  Chairman,  John 
F.  Shepard. 

13.  Committee  on  adaptation  of  psychological  instruc- 
tion to  military  educational  needs.  Chairman,  Raymond 
Dodge. 

In  addition  to  the  lines  of  service  indicated  by  the  titles 
of  committees,  special  work  was  done  by  individual  members 
of  the  Psychology  Committee  or  of  its  subcommittees  as 
follows : 

14.  For  the  Division  of  Military  Intelligence,  on  methods 
of  selecting  and  training  scouts  and  observers,  by  John  B. 
Watson  and  Madison  Bentley. 

15.  For  the  Chemical  Warfare  Service,  on  psychological 
problems  of  the  gas  mask,  by  Raymond  Dodge,  John  W. 
Baird,  and  Knight  Dunlap. 

16.  For  the  Committee  on  Education  and  Special  Train- 
ing of  the  War  Department,  on  adaptation  of  army  intelli- 
gence tests  for  use  in  the  Students'  Army  Training  Corps,  by 
Lewis  M.  Terman. 

17.  For  various  military  and  civilian  agencies,  studies  of 
special  problems  in  learning,  methods  of  instruction,  and 
methods  of  selecting  for  special  tasks,  by  L.  L.  Thurstone, 
Herbert  S.  Langfeld,  and  Robert  S.  Woodworth. 

II.  Committee  Service  and  Expenditures 
The  Psychology  Committee  depended  chiefly  on  three  in- 
strumentalities for  the  conduct  of  its  service  and  research: 
subcommittees,  conferences,  and  appointments  in  the  army 
or  navy.  The  results  obtained  through  these  several  instru- 
mentalities will  be  presented  under  the  subcommittees  or 
special  topics  listed  above. 

Though  many  of  the  subcommittees  have  seemingly  played 
unimportant  roles,  it  is  nevertheless  clear  that  this  form  of 
organization  was  indispensable  for  the  instigation  and  main- 


86  REPORT  OF   THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

tenance  of  service.  Appointments  in  the  army  and  navy 
rank  next  in  importance,  for  it  usually  was  found  desirable 
to  have  experienced  and  highly  trained  specialists  administer 
for  the  army  or  navy  the  methods  which  were  prepared  and 
recommended  by  the  Committee  or  its  subcommittees.  The 
conference  has  served  the  important  purpose  of  bringing  to- 
gether, for  a  relatively  short  period,  a  group  of  individuals 
especially  interested  in  and  competent  to  discuss  and  advise 
concerning  certain  immediately  important  practical  questions. 
Although  the  activities  of  the  Psychology  Committee 
have  extended  over  a  period  of  nearly  two  years,  its  expendi- 
tures, omitting  clerical  help,  office  rental,  and  supplies  which 
were  furnished  by  the  Research  Council,  amount  to  less  than 
twenty-five  hundred  dollars.  Of  this  sum  approximately  nine 
hundred  dollars  was  used  for  the  personal  assistance  of  psy- 
chologists in  the  work  of  the  Committee  or  of  the  Division 
of  Psychology,  Surgeon  General's  OfHce;  about  one  thousand 
dollars  for  conference  expenses,  and  the  remainder  for  print- 
ing, preparation  of  charts,  and  incidentals. 

III.  Organization    and    Services    of    Subcommittees 

AND  Special  Investigations  of  the  Psychology  Commit- 
tee 

I.  Committee  on  Psychological  Literature  Relating  to  Mili- 
tary Affairs. — This  committee  was  originally  authorized  by 
the  Council  of  the  American  Psychological  Association,  which 
at  the  same  time  designated  Howard  C.  Warren  as  chairman. 
Because  of  Warren's  inability  to  serve,  Madison  Bentley  was 
made  chairman  of  the  committee.  Bentley,  although  never 
assisted  by  an  organized  group,  rendered  important  service 
by  supplying  the  various  committees  and  subcommittees  with 
references  to  pertinent  psychological  articles  and  with  sum- 
maries of  the  more  important  of  such  articles. 

This  work  ceased  when  Bentley  accepted  appointment  in 
the  Signal  Corps  to  assist  with  the  work  of  the  Aviation  Ex- 
amining Boards. 

He  had  already  succeeded  in  demonstrating  to  the  satis- 
faction of  psychologists  who  were  directing  the  activities  of 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  87 

subcommittees  that  the  psychological  literature  relating  to 
military  problems  was  not  of  great  practical  importance  in 
connection  with  the  emergency,  because  most  of  the  tasks 
presented  to  or  discovered  by  the  committee  demanded  en- 
gineering of  the  pioneer  sort. 

2.  Committee  on  the  Psychological  Examination  of  Recruits. 
— This  committee  of  the  Psychological  Association  was  ac- 
cepted as  a  subcommittee  of  the  Psychology  Committee  of  the 
Research  Council  in  November,  1917.  It  was  organized  in 
May,  1917,  with  the  following  membership:  Walter  V.  Bing- 
ham, Herbert  H.  Goddard,  Thomas  H.  Haines,  Lewis  M. 
Terman,  F.  Lyman  Wells,  Guy  M.  Whipple,  and  Robert  M. 
Yerkes,  chairman.^ 

During  June,  July,  and  August  of  1917,  the  committee 
prepared  and  directed  the  trial  of  group  and  Individual  pro- 
cedures for  psychological  examination  of  recruits.  Subse- 
quently, various  members  of  the  committee-  made  indispen- 
sable contributions  by  assisting  with  the  revision  of  the  meth- 
ods. 

The  final  meeting  of  this  committee  was  held  on  June  17, 
1918,  on  which  date  it  was  called  in  conference  by  the  chair- 
man of  the  Psychology  Committee  of  the  Research  Council 
to  consider  the  scientific  utilization  of  methods  and  results  of 
mental  testing  in  the  army.  At  this  conference,  It  was  de- 
cided to  attempt  to  preserve  for  subsequent  careful  analysis 
and  statistical  study  at  least  200,000  of  the  original  records 
of  psychological  examinations  of  recruits.  At  the  same  time, 
the  committee  carefully  considered  and  formulated  for  the 
guidance  of  the  Division  of  Psychology,  Medical  Department 
of  the  Army,  advice  concerning  the  revision  and  utilization 
of  methods  of  examining. 

The  methods  prepared  for  the  army  by  this  committee, 
consisting  of  a  procedure  for  the  examination  of  large  groups 
of  subjects  and  also  a  series  of  tests  for  individual  examina- 
tion, were  accepted  by  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Army 

^  The  committee  was  assisted  in  its  early  work  on  methods  by  N.  J.  Melville,  E.  A. 
Doll,  and  members  of  the  Department  of  Psychological  Research  of  the  School  for  the 
Feeble-minded,  Vineland,  N.  J. 

*  Notably,  Bingham,  Haines,  Terman,  and  Whipple. 


88  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

in  August,  1917,  for  official  trial.  They  have  since  been 
thoroughly  revised  and  importantly  supplemented  in  the 
light  of  extensive  results. 

During  November  and  December  of  1917  thorough  mili- 
tary trial  of  these  methods  in  four  cantonments  yielded  re- 
sults which  led  the  Surgeon  General  to  recommend  to  the 
War  Department  the  extension  of  psychological  examining 
to  include  "all  company  officers,  all  candidates  for  officers' 
training  camps,  and  all  drafted  and  enlisted  men." 

This  extension  was  approved  by  the  War  Department  in 
January,  1918,  and  at  the  same  time  a  Division  of  Psychology 
was  created  in  the  Office  of  the  Surgeon  General  to  organize 
and  direct  this  new  variety  of  service. 

To  supply  the  requisite  trained  personnel  for  psycholog- 
ical examining,  a  school  of  Military  Psychology  was  estab- 
lished at  the  Medical  Officers'  Training  Camp,  Fort  Ogle- 
thorpe, Georgia.  Approximately  one  hundred  officers  and 
three  hundred  enlisted  men  were  given  two  months  of  inten- 
sive training  in  this  school.  The  instruction  included,  in 
addition  to  training  in  procedures  of  army  psychological  ex- 
amining, the  courses  in  military  drill,  army  paper  work,  and 
medical  department  administration,  regularly  required  for 
medical  officers  of  the  army. 

The  methods  were  carefully  revised  during  January  and 
February,  1918,  as  a  result  of  the  official  trial;  the  necessary 
equipment  to  supply  approximately  two  hundred  examining 
officers  was  manufactured,  and  the  various  forms  of  examina- 
tion blank  were  printed  In  large  editions  In  order  that  all 
examining  stations  should  be  adequately  equipped. 

Suitable  buildings  for  psychological  work  were  either  as- 
signed or  constructed  in  the  principal  army  training  camps, 
and  within  a  few  months  the  service  was  satisfactorily  or- 
ganized. 

The  principal  results  of  psychological  examining  may  be 
summarized  statistically  and  their  applications  briefly  indi- 
cated. 

The  work  of  mental  examining  was  organized  finally  in 
thirty-five  army  training  camps.     A  grand  total  of  1,726,000 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  89 

men  had  been  given  psychological  examination  prior  to  Jan- 
uary I,  1919.  Of  this  number,  about  41,000  were  commis- 
sioned officers.  More  than  83,000  of  the  enlisted  men  inclu- 
ded in  the  total  had  been  given  an  individual  examination  in 
addition  to  the  group  examination  for  literates,  for  illiterates, 
or  both. 

Between  April  27  and  November  30,  1918,  7,749  (0.5  per 
cent.)  were  reported  for  discharge  by  psychological  examiners 
because  of  mental  inferiority.  The  number  of  recommenda- 
tions for  assignment  to  labor  battalions  because  of  low-grade 
intelligence  was  9,871  (0.6+  per  cent.).  A  total  of  9,432 
men  (0.6+  per  cent.)  were  recommended  for  assignment  to 
development  battalions  in  order  that  they  might  be  carefully 
observed  and  given  preliminary  training  to  discover,  if  pos- 
sible, ways  of  using  them  in  the  army. 

During  this  same  period  of  six  months,  there  were  re- 
ported 4,744  men  with  mental  age  ratings  below  seven  years; 
7,762  between  seven  and  eight  years;  14,566  between  eight 
and  nine  years;  18,581  between  nine  and  ten  years.  This 
gives  a  total  of  45,653  (3  per  cent.)  men  under  ten  years' 
mental  age.  It  is  extremely  improbable  that  many  of  these 
individuals  were  worth  what  it  cost  the  government  to  main- 
tain, equip,  and  train  them  for  military  service. 

The  original  purpose  of  psychological  examining  in  the 
army  was  stated  as  follows  in  the  preamble  to  the  plan  first 
submitted  to  the  Surgeon  General:  "The  Council  of  the 
American  Psychological  Association  is  convinced  that  in  the 
present  emergency  American  psychology  can  substantially 
serve  the  government,  under  the  Medical  Corps  of  the  Army 
and  Navy,  by  examining  recruits  with  respect  especially  to 
intellectual  deficiency,  psychopathic  tendencies,  nervous  in- 
stability, and  inadequate  self-control." 

It  was  the  expectation  of  psychological  examiners  that 
their  principal  service  would  be  assistance  in  the  prompt  dis- 
covery and  proper  disposition  of  mental  defectives.  Long 
before  the  official  trial  of  methods  of  examining  had  ended, 
however,  it  had  become  clear  that  various  other  applications 
were  desired  by  officers  of  the  line  and  that  the  significance  of 


90  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

psychological  service  would  unquestionably  be  much  broader 
than  had  been  supposed.  The  official  medical  inspector  of 
this  work  in  his  report  listed  its  chief  purposes  as:  {a)  to  aid 
in  segregating  the  mentally  incompetent,  {b)  to  classify  men 
according  to  their  mental  capacity,  and  {c)  to  assist  in  select- 
ing competent  men  for  responsible  positions. 

With  the  extension  of  psychological  examining,  these  three 
lines  of  application  rapidly  became  differentiated,  and  both 
line  and  medical  officers  discovered,  for  themselves  or  with 
the  assistance  of  psychological  examiners,  new  and  important 
ways  of  utilizing  mental  ratings  to  increase  military  effici- 
ency and  to  lessen  the  cost  of  training  and  maintenance. 
The  principal  practical  uses  of  these  ratings  common  to  the 
majority  of  the  training  camps  in  which  the  service  was  or- 
ganized are  listed  below: 

(i)  For  the  discovery  of  men  whose  superior  intelligence 
warranted  their  consideration  for  promotion,  special  training 
or  assignment  to  positions  of  unusual  responsibility  or  diffi- 
culty; (2)  for  assistance  in  selecting  suitable  candidates  for 
officers'  training  schools,  non-commissioned  officers'  training 
schools  and  other  special  training  organizations;  (3)  for  the 
guidance  of  personnel  adjutants  in  the  assignment  of  recruits 
so  that  organizations  might  be  built  in  accordance  with  desir- 
able intelligence  specifications  or,  in  the  absence  of  such  speci- 
fications, so  that  their  different  constituent  parts,  such  for 
example  as  the  companies  of  a  regiment,  should  possess  ap- 
proximately the  same  mental  strength,  thus  avoiding  the 
risk  of  weak  links  in  the  army  chain;  (4)  for  the  prompt  dis- 
covery of  men  whose  low  grade  intelligence  or  mental  peculi- 
arities rendered  them  of  uncertain  value  in  the  army,  and  the 
assignment  of  such  individuals  to  development  battalions  for 
observation  and  preliminary  training;  (5)  for  the  discovery 
and  recommendation  or  assignment  to  labor  battalions  of 
men  obviously  so  inferior  mentally  as  to  be  unsuitable  for 
regular  military  training,  yet  promising  serviceableness  in 
simple  manual  labor;  (6)  for  the  discovery  of  men  whose  men- 
tal inferiority  unfitted  them  for  any  sort  of  military  duty  and 
whose  rejection  or  discharge  should  therefore  be  recommended 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  9^ 

to  medical  officers;  (7)  for  utilization  In  connection  with  the 
organization  of  special  training  groups  so  that  each  group 
might  be  Instructed  or  drilled  in  accordance  with  its  mental 
capacity,  thus  avoiding  the  delay  Incident  to  dull  or  awkward 
individuals  and  enabling  the  especially  able  men  to  proceed 
rapidly  and  ultimately  to  take  special  forms  of  training  in 
preparation  for  promotion  or  other  forms  of  responsibility. 

The  judgment  of  the  army  concerning  the  practical  value 
of  this  work  has  been  very  clearly  indicated  by  reports  of  com- 
manding officers.  On  completion  of  the  official  trial  of  methods 
in  four  cantonments,  approximately  seventy-five  per  cent,  of 
the  regimental  and  company  commanders  who  were  more  or 
less  familiar  with  the  psychological  ratings  and  their  proposed 
applications  expressed  their  approval  of  this  new  line  of  ser- 
vice and  the  opinion  that  It  should  be  continued,  extended, 
and  its  military  usefulness  increased.  As  the  organization 
of  the  service  was  gradually  perfected  and  the  officers  of  the 
line  and  the  Medical  Corps  became  acquainted  with  its  actual 
and  possible  values  to  them,  the  proportion  of  favorable  opin- 
ion tended  to  Increase. 

The  psychological  service  was  so  organized  in  each  large 
training  camp  that  a  staff  of  four  officers  of  the  Sanitary 
Corps,  six  enlisted  men,  also  trained  in  military  psychology, 
and  thirty  to  forty  privates  temporarily  assigned  for  service 
as  scorers,  clerks,  and  orderlies,  could,  when  necessary,  exam- 
ine and  report  on  from  one  to  two  thousand  recruits  per  day. 
During  one  month  the  total  number  of  psychological  exami- 
nations in  the  camps  approached  three  hundred  thousand. 

The  results  of  psychological  examining  in  the  army  have 
two  particularly  important  bearings.  Their  primary  signif- 
icance Is  In  connection  with  the  development  and  improve- 
ment of  methods  of  mental  measurement  which  are  appli- 
cable alike  to  industrial,  educational,  military,  and  other 
practical  situations.  Equally  important,  however,  with  the 
advance  in  the  development  of  methods,  are  the  scientific 
results  of  this  extensive  mental  survey. 

The  most  important  single  achievement  of  the  group  of 
psychologists  which  developed  the  methods  for  army  mental 


92  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

testing  is  the  creation  of  a  practical,  serviceable,  and  reason- 
ably reliable  method  of  group  examining  by  which,  if  neces- 
sary, as  many  as  five  hundred  individuals  may  be  examined 
at  one  time. 

The  improvement  in  methods  of  individual  examining  due 
to  the  army  work  and  experience  is  also  extremely  important, 
for  more  than  eighty-three  thousand  individual  examinations 
were  made  and  the  attention  of  a  large  number  of  expert 
examiners  was  concentrated  for  months  on  the  perfecting  of 
procedures  and  the  increase  of  their  practical  military  value. 
The  Performance  Scale  for  the  examination  of  foreign  and 
illiterate  subjects,  developed  by  army  psychological  exam- 
iners, has  wide  applicability.  Like  the  group  examination 
devised  especially  for  subjects  incapable  of  reading  and  writ- 
ing English  to  any  considerable  extent,  it  marks  a  most  sig- 
nificant advance  in  mental  examining. 

It  is  already  evident  that  the  contributions  to  methods  of 
practical  mental  measurement  made  by  this  committee  of 
the  National  Research  Council,  and  by  the  psychological 
personnel  of  the  army,  are  profoundly  influencing  not  only 
psychologists,  but  educators,  masters  of  industry,  and  the 
experts  in  diverse  professions.  New  points  of  view,  interest, 
and  expectations  abound.  The  service  of  psychological  ex- 
amining in  the  army  has  conspicuously  advanced  mental  en- 
gineering, and  has  assured  the  immediate  application  of 
methods  of  mental  rating  to  the  problems  of  classification 
and  assignment  In  our  educational  institutions  and  our  in- 
dustries. 

If  the  full  value  of  the  labor  on  methods  of  mental  measure- 
ment and  the  results  of  their  use  in  the  army  is  to  be  achieved, 
this  work  must  be  adequately  reported  and  suitably  published. 
The  psychological  staff  of  the  Surgeon  General's  Office  has 
made  a  tentative  arrangement  which  promises  to  provide  a 
satisfactory  permanent  scientific  record. 

It  is  proposed  to  prepare,  first  of  all,  a  comprehensive  of- 
ficial report  of  psychological  service  for  the  Surgeon  General 
of  the  army  and  to  recommend  its  publication  by  the  Govern- 
ment.    This  report  will  present  the  history  and  organization 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  93 

of  psychological  examining  in  the  army;  an  account  of  the 
methods  as  originally  recommended,  as  revised,  and  as  finally 
applied  throughout  the  army;  the  history  of  the  organization 
of  the  School  for  Military  Psychology,  and  of  the  appointment 
training  and  assignment  of  the  psychological  personnel  of  the 
Sanitary  Corps,  and,  finally,  a  summary  account  of  the  re- 
sults of  psychological  examining  and  their  values  to  the  army, 
together  with  recommendations  or  report  concerning  the  re- 
lations of  this  service  to  the  permanent  United  States  Army. 
It  is  believed  that  this  report  can  be  limited  to  approximately 
three  hundred  pages. 

For  scientific  purposes,  it  is  planned  to  prepare  more  de- 
tailed reports  on  methods  and  results  which  it  is  hoped  may 
be  published  as  memoirs  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences. 

The  initial  volume,  the  manuscript  of  which  is  nearly 
completed,  will  consist  of  three  parts:  (i)  An  introductory 
description  of  the  inception  and  organization  of  psychological 
service.  (2)  A  detailed  description  of  the  methods  of  army 
examining  in  the  various  forms  in  which  they  have  been  tried 
out.  This  part  of  the  volume  will  reproduce  the  directions 
for  examination  and  the  several  examination  blanks,  together 
with  all  other  printed  materials,  norms,  and  other  standards 
of  judgment  which  are  essential  for  the  proper  understanding 
of  the  methods  and  their  uses.  (3)  As  a  third  part,  it  is  pro- 
posed to  present  a  complete  account  of  the  results  of  official 
trial  of  the  methods  in  four  National  Army  cantonments. 
This  will  include  a  description  of  the  principal  phases  of  the 
early  organization  of  psychological  service  in  the  army  and 
of  the  general  relations  of  results  of  examining  to  revisions  of 
method  and  extension  of  the  work  to  the  entire  army. 

In  a  second  volume  it  is  planned  to  present  results  of  the 
examination  of  approximately  1,600,000  soldiers.  In  addi- 
tion to  a  general  description  of  results,  the  volume  will  pre- 
sent a  statistical  study  (based  upon  data  secured  with  the 
Hollerith  System)  of  approximately  200,000  records  of  exam- 
ination chosen  so  that  they  adequately  represent  states,  arms 
of  the  service,  negroes  and  whites,  and  types  of  camp. 

Finally,   miscellaneous   materials   which  cannot  properly 


94  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

be  placed  in  the  preceding  volumes  v/ill  be  published  either 
separately  or  as  a  third  volume.  It  is  not  improbable  that 
these  studies  should  be  placed  in  psychological  periodicals 
rather  than  the  National  Academy  series.  So  far  as  the  time 
of  the  psychological  staff  permits,  these  miscellaneous  studies 
will  present  results  bearing  on  such  generally  important  topics 
as  the  nature  and  distribution  of  illiteracy  among  negroes 
and  whites,  and  the  relation  of  illiteracy  to  intelligence;  the 
intelligence  of  the  negro  as  compared  with  that  of  other  racial 
groups;  the  relation  of  intelligence  to  geographical  distribu- 
tion and  its  significant  bearings  upon  educational,  industrial, 
and  other  social  problems;  the  geographical  distribution  of 
intelligence  in  relation  to  the  newly  arrived  or  partially  assim- 
ilated immigrant;  the  relation  of  intelligence  to  occupation 
and  the  significance  of  army  occupational  classification  and 
intelligence  ratings  in  connection  with  the  practical  problems 
of  securing  and  utilizing  mental  specifications  for  vocational 
guidance;  the  mental  characteristics  of  conscientious  objec- 
tors and  their  significance  for  military  service,  educational 
activities,  and  social  or  governmental  obligations.  These  are 
only  a  few  examples  of  the  miscellaneous  studies  which  should 
be  based  on  the  abundant  data  of  examination  and  special 
report  available  in  the  Office  of  the  Surgeon  General. 

The  preparation  of  the  several  volumes  and  special  studies 
enumerated  above  is  already  well  advanced.  It  is  hoped  that 
the  volume  on  methods  and  initial  results  may  be  ready  for 
publication  early  in  the  spring  of  1919  and  that  it  may  be 
followed  promptly  by  the  volume  on  the  analysis  of  results, 
the  official  report,  and  the  more  important  of  the  miscella- 
neous studies. 

The  above  plan,  it  is  believed,  provides  as  adequately  as 
is  now  practicable  for  the  publication  of  the  results  of  mili- 
tary psychological  service  in  the  interests  of  the  army  and  of 
other  governmental  agencies  as  well  as  of  education  and  in- 
dustry. 

3.  The  Committee  on  Psychological  Problems  of  Aviation^ 
including  Examination  of  Aviation  Recruits,  was  authorized 
by  the  Council  of  the  American  Psychological  Association. 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  95 

It  was  made  a  subcommittee  of  the  Research  Council  in 
November,  1918.  Under  the  chairmanship  of  Harold  E. 
Burtt,  the  committee,  whose  other  members  were  W.  R. 
Miles  and  L.  T.  Troland,  undertook  the  selection  and  de- 
velopment of  mental  and  physiological  tests  which  promised 
a  priori  to  be  indicative  of  aptitude  for  flying.  Various  exist- 
ing forms  of  apparatus  were  adapted  for  the  tests  and  several 
new  forms  were  devised  and  constructed.  Although  the  pri- 
mary Intention  was  to  proceed  purely  empirically  to  deter- 
mine which  tests  were  indicative  of  flying  ability,  it  was  also 
proposed  to  undertake  the  development  of  tests  bearing  on 
the  mental  and  physiological  state  of  the  aviator  during 
flight. 

The  evaluation  of  tests  by  trial  on  cadets  at  the  Army 
Aviation  Ground  School,  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, was  begun  early  In  June,  1917. 

The  following  tests  were  given: 

1.  Patellar  reflex  with  two  stimuli  in  succession,  a  gradually  de- 

creasing interval  between  stimuli. 

2.  Electrical  threshold. 

3.  Cardiograms  and  records  of  respiration  while  reclining  and  while 

"chinning"  oneself. 

4.  Finger  movement;  first  and  second  fingers  moving  together  as 

rapidly  as  possible  through  an  uncontrolled  distance. 

5.  Swaying;  standing  with  a  helmet  beneath  smoked  paper. 

6.  Visual  acuity;  Ives  gratings. 

7.  Memory  test  (Dodge's);  words  exposed  one  letter  at  a  time. 

8.  Inhibition  of  winking  reflex. 

9.  Eye  reactions  to  light;  moving  from  fixation  point  to  a  spot  of 

light  which  appears. 

10.  Speed  of  eye  movements. 

11.  Ocular  pursuit  movements;  following  pendulum. 

12.  Reversed  maze;  tracing  it  visibly  and  then  invisibly  and  rotated. 

13.  Association  reaction  with  crucial  words  involving  fear,  falling, 

etc. 

14.  Motor  learning;  learning  a  fixed  series  of  reactions  with  two 

alternatives  by  trial  and  error. 

15.  Auditory  difi'erence  threshold  with  loud  standard  similar  to  the 

sound  of  a  motor. 

16.  Distance  and  velocity  estimation;  moving  target  passes  across 


96  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

opening  at  constant  rate  and  then  disappears;  the  subject 
tries  to  stop  it  when  it  has  reached  (invisibly)  a  given  point. 

17.  Continuous  choice  reaction;  each  stimulus  being  produced  by 

the  preceding  correct  reaction. 

18.  Tapping  with  index  finger  vertically  between  two  fixed  contacts. 

19.  Equilibrium  reaction  time;  subject  sitting  on  platform  which 

tilts  suddenly;  choice  reaction  to  the  direction  of  tilt. 

20.  Simple  visual  reaction  time. 

21.  Simple  auditory  reaction  time. 

22.  Fatigue;  ergograph  with  middle  finger. 

23.  Emotional  stability;  changes  in  pulse,  breathing  and  arithmet- 

ical performance  as  affected  by  a  revolver  shot. 

About  seventy-five  cadets  were  given  the  above  series  of 
tests.  Arrangements  had  been  made  to  correlate  test  per- 
formances with  records  from  the  flying  schools  as  soon  as 
these  men  learned  to  fly  solo  and  also  when  they  received  the 
rank  of  "Reserve  Military  Aviator."  Unfortunately  the  ex- 
igencies of  the  situation  in  Europe  interfered  with  this  pro- 
gram, since  it  became  necessary  to  send  some  of  the  men 
direct  from  the  ground  school  overseas.  Records  of  flying 
ability  were  obtained  for  twenty-five  of  the  men  tested. 

In  the  summer  of  1917  the  committee  was  reorganized. 
Burtt  resigned  and  George  M.  Stratton  who  had  been  work- 
ing independently  on  tests  for  aviators  at  Rockwell  Field, 
San  Diego,  was  appointed  chairman.  Edward  L.  Thorndike 
was  chosen  as  executive  secretary,  and  John  B.  Watson,  War- 
ner Brown,  Francis  Maxfield,  and  H.  C.  McComas  were  added 
to  the  membership.  Stratton  had  tested  over  fifty  cadets  in 
the  following  capacities:  auditory  reaction  time,  visual  reac- 
tion time,  emotional  stability,  steadiness  and  standing,  per- 
ception of  gradual  tilt  of  the  body  as  a  whole,  dexterity,  and 
the  power  to  continue  in  imagination  certain  segments  of 
curves  presented  visually. 

A  combined  score  showed  that  of  the  six  aviators  who  made 
the  lowest  scores,  five  men  subsequently  were  relieved  from 
flying  because  of  failure  to  learn  to  fly.  Stratton's  results, 
together  with  the  entire  data  of  Burtt,  Miles,  and  Troland, 
and  later  the  findings  of  Maxfield,  were  pooled  for  compara- 
tive analysis  under  the  direction  of  Thorndike,  who  under- 


OF   THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  ^^ 

took  a  statistical  study  of  the  relation  between  the  results  of 
the  tests  and  the  degree  of  success  achieved  in  flying. 

It  was  early  foreseen  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  select 
a  number  of  tests,  each  properly  weighted,  as  the  practical 
means  of  predicting  aptitude  for  flying.  Provision  was  made 
by  the  army  for  a  systematic  and  detailed  tryout  of  promis- 
ing tests  by  Captain  Stratton  and  Captain  Henmon  at  Rock- 
well Field  and  Kelly  Field  in  cooperation  with  the  Committee 
on  Classification  of  Personnel.  The  personnel  of  the  group 
on  whom  the  tests  were  tried  out  included  one  hundred  men 
chosen  on  the  basis  of  their  special  skill  in  flying,  one  hundred 
chosen  as  relatively  inapt  at  flying,  and  one  hundred  candi- 
dates of  unknown  ability.  This  work,  carried  on  in  the 
spring  of  1918,  resulted  in  provision  by  the  War  Department 
for  further  research  by  Captain  Stratton,  and  the  authoriza- 
tion of  four  special  examining  units  to  apply  the  tests  to  can- 
didates for  cadetship. 

To  Major  John  B.  Watson  of  the  subcommittee  on  avia- 
tional  problem  was  assigned,  in  the  summer  of  1917,  the  task 
of  organizing  methods,  other  than  medical,  to  be  used  by  the 
examining  boards  for  the  selection  of  personnel.  Watson 
also  assisted  in  organizing  a  group  of  research  psychologists 
to  collaborate  with  physiologists  and  medical  officers  in  the 
study  of  aviational  problems  at  the  Bureau  of  Mines,  Wash- 
ington. 

Special  mention  should  be  made  of  the  Psychology  Sec- 
tion of  the  Medical  Research  Laboratory  at  Hazelhurst  Field, 
Mineola,  Long  Island,  which  developed  from  the  work  inaug- 
urated in  Washington  by  Watson  and  his  associates.  At 
this  station.  Major  Knight  Dunlap^  was  primarily  responsible 
for  the  development  of  a  series  of  psychological  tests  to  assist 
in  determining  the  ability  of  candidates  for  the  aviation  ser- 
vice to  withstand  the  effects  of  high  altitudes.  Oxygen  in- 
sufficiency was  produced  by  the  Henderson  rebreathing  ap- 

1  For  an  account  of  the  psychological  work  of  this  station  see  Knight  Dunlap: 
"Psychological  Research  in  Aviation,"  Science,  N.  S.,  49,  94-97,  Jan.  24,  1919; 
"  Manual  of  Medical  Research  Laboratory."  War  Department,  1918,  pp.  163-199^ 
and  "  Medical  Studies  in  Aviation,"  (IV.  Psychologic  observations  and  methods.) 
Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc,  71,  1382-1400.     Ocober,  1918. 


98  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

paratus,  and  the  important  resulting  effects  on  attention  and 
on  voluntary  sensory-motor  coordination  were  made  the  basis 
of  practical  tests  for  rating  aviators. 

In  general  the  method  employed  called  for  the  performance 
by  the  subject  of  a  group  of  continuous  tasks  involving  co- 
ordinated reactions  during  the  gradual  decrease  of  oxygen 
supply.  The  composure  of  the  subject  and  his  ability  to 
comprehend  instructions  were  noted.  Attention  and  motor 
tendencies  were  recorded  on  a  fixed  scale  of  types,  as  were 
also  the  moments  when  the  effects  of  oxygen  insufficiency  at- 
tained a  certain  standardized  importance,  especially  the  final 
moment  of  'complete  inefficiency'  which  would  have  been 
followed  quickly  by  a  complete  breakdown  and  unconscious- 
ness if  the  reactor  had  not  been  given  air. 

The  psychological  section  of  the  Mineola  Station,  at  first 
under  Major  Dunlap  and  later  under  Major  Stratton,  trained 
and  sent  into  the  field  units  for  administering  these  tests  to 
aviation  cadets.  During  the  last  half  of  1918,  beside  the 
conduct  of  psychological  tests  of  the  ability  of  aviators  to 
withstand  high  altitude  and  the  consequent  lack  of  oxygen, 
further  research  was  carried  on  for  the  discovery  of  special 
aptitude  for  flying.  To  this  end,  experiments  were  instituted 
at  Taylor  Field,  Montgomery,  Alabama,  under  the  immediate 
charge  of  Captain  McComas,  and  at  Souther  Field,  Amerlcus, 
Georgia,  under  the  immediate  charge  of  Lieutenant  Bagby 
with  special  apparatus  and  methods  in  the  following  regions: 
The  judgment  of  differing  rates  of  motion  which  intersect, 
pursuit  movements  of  the  hand,  the  power  to  trace  and  re- 
trace a  given  course,  the  strength  and  maintenance  of  a  max- 
imal grip,  the  time  of  complex  reaction  to  visual  signals. 
These  experiments  are  now  in  progress  and  it  is  too  soon  to 
give  their  outcome  even  in  summary. 

J.  F.  Shepard  cooperated  with  the  subcommittee  on  avia- 
tion in  devising  tests  for  aerial  observers.  The  Shepard 
method  of  modifying  photographic  plates  is  worthy  of  special 
notice. 

Captain  H.  C.  McComas  of  the  subcommittee  also  con- 
ducted work  along  somewhat  similar  lines. 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  99 

H.  L.  Eno  and  O.  V.  Fry  developed  apparatus  for  measur- 
ing the  aviator's  ability  to  point  his  plane  quickly  and  accur- 
ately in  a  desired  direction,  as  at  an  enemy  plane. 

Major  Watson  was  sent  to  Europe  to  gather  statistics  on 
the  qualities  essential  to  success  as  a  military  aviator. 

Dr.  Parsons  of  the  Navy  received  help  from  the  committee 
in  giving  tests  to  every  candidate  for  flying  status  in  the  naval 
air  service.  Parsons'  study  of  the  relation  of  the  duration  of 
nystagmus  after  rotation  to  flying  ability  yielded  negative 
results,  which  are  corroborative  of  Thorndike's  findings,  and 
supported  by  Dodge's  analysis  of  nystagmus  reactions. 

From  August  4,  1918,  Thorndike  served  as  chairman  of  the 
subcommittee  on  aviation.  The  Department  of  Military 
Aeronautics  had  requested  that  he  be  designated  as  expert  to 
prepare  and  put  into  operation  methods  of  psychological 
testing  appropriate  for  examining  the  personnel  of  that  de- 
partment. To  that  effect  he  studied  the  system  used  by  the 
aviational  examining  boards  for  the  selection  of  candidates 
in  the  air  service  and  also  the  intelligence  tests  In  general  use 
in  the  army.  Especially  by  modification  and  supplementa- 
tion of  the  latter  he  developed  a  test  of  mental  alertness  to 
measure  mental  ability  of  the  order  requisite  for  success  in 
the  air  service. 

From  the  records  of  over  two  thousand  flyers,  Thorndike 
determined  the  relation  between  actual  success  in  the  work 
of  a  military  aviator  over  the  lines  and  age,  social  status, 
intellectual  ability,  business  achievement,  athletic  ability, 
and  many  other  characteristics. 

A  testing  and  rating  plan,  a  part  of  the  general  plan  for 
the  selection  and  classification  of  officer  material  in  the  Stu- 
dents' Army  Training  Corps,  was  adopted  by  the  Procure- 
ment Branch  of  the  Personnel  Section  of  the  Air  Service  and 
was  to  have  been  put  into  operation  in  November,  191 8,  for 
the  selection  of  over  one  thousand  aviation  cadets  per  month 
from  the  Students'  Army  Training  Corps. ^ 

4.  Committee  on  the  Selection  of  Men  for  Tasks  Requiring 

^  This  account  is  supplemented  by  E.  L.  Thorndike:  " Scientific  Personnel  Work  in 
the  Army,"  Science,  N.  S.,  49,  53-61,  Jan.  17,  1919. 


lOO  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

Special  Aptitude. — This  committee  was  organized  with  the 
following  membership:  James  C.  Chapman,  Truman  L.  Kel- 
ley,  Walter  Dill  Scott,  Edward  L.  Thorndike,  chairman.  It 
was  constituted  a  committee  on  'Tests  of  special  skill'  by 
the  Executive  Board  of  the  Research  Council  in  November, 
1917. 

Numerous  problems  of  special  skill  dealt  with  by  this 
committee  ultimately  led,  through  the  activity  of  Thorndike 
and  Scott,  to  the  organization  of  the  Committee  on  Classi- 
fication of  Personnel  in  the  Army. 

By  request,  the  following  summary  account  of  the  services 
of  the  Personnel  Committee  has  been  prepared  for  this  re- 
port by  Walter  V.  Bingham,  Secretary  of  the  committee.^ 

"The  Committee  on  Classification  of  Personnel  in  the 
Army  was  created  by  Secretary  Baker,  August  5,  1917,  as  an 
instrument  to  increase  the  value  of  the  army's  man-power 
through  securing  the  most  effective  placement  of  each  man. 
This  has  demanded  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  entire  army 
organization  to  determine  where  ability  of  various  kinds  is 
required,  and  the  development  and  supervision  of  an  army 
personnel  system  to  discover  the  occupational,  educational 
and  military  qualifications  possessed  by  the  recruits  and  to 
insure  their  assignment  to  the  proper  units. 

"The  Committee  was  organized  with  Walter  Dill  Scott  as 
Director,  E.  L.  Thorndike  as  Chairman,  and  W.  V.  Bingham 
as  Executive  Secretary.  The  other  members  were  J.  R. 
Angell,  R.  C.  Clothier,  Raymond  Dodge,  H.  L.  Gardner,  J.  F. 
Shepard,  E.  K.  Strong,  Jr.,  L.  M.  Terman,  J.  B.  Watson,  and 
R.  M.  Yerkes.  The  places  of  five  of  the  original  members 
have  since  been  filled  by  J.  J.  Coss,  W.  R.  DeField,  W.  B. 
Hale,  P.  J.  Reilly  and  J.  J.  Swan. 

"A  large  force  of  able  and  devoted  civilian  and  military 
associates  of  the  Committee,  in  Washington,  in  the  camps, 
and  overseas,  has  made  possible  the  realization  of  its  plans. 

"For  this  program  an  initial  appropriation  of  ^25,000  was 

^  An  official  account  of  this  work  is  in  preparation  for  early  publication  by  the 
War  Department  under  the  general  title  "  The  Personnel  System  of  the  United  States 
Army."  There  will  be  two  volumes:  I.  The  Evolution  of  the  Personnel  System;  II. 
The  Personnel  Manual. 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  lOi 

made,  and  as  the  scope  of  the  Committee's  responsibilities 
grew,  additional  appropriations  were  approved  until  the  total 
amounted  to  ^851,650. 

"While  it  happened  that  the  original  membership  of  the 
Committee  consisted  almost  wholly  of  psychologists,  many 
industrial  and  business  specialists  in  employing,  classifying, 
and  assigning  men  were  called  upon  to  insure  the  successful 
prosecution  of  the  work.  This  has  included  the  following 
activities : 

"(«)  Classification  and  placement  of  enlisted  men.  Per- 
sonnel offices  have  been  established  in  all  army  divisions, 
depot  and  training  camps,  coast  defense  stations,  aviation 
fields,  special  training  camps,  for  Staff  Corps  and  at  other 
army  posts.  In  these  offices  a  special  card  system  furnished 
accessible  information  as  to  the  educational,  occupational, 
and  military  qualifications  of  every  man.  With  a  minimum 
of  clerical  work  this  system  selected  973,858  men  for  transfer 
largely  into  technical  units  in  the  Engineers,  Aviation,  Ord- 
nance, and  other  Staff  Corps,  and  even  more  men  for  trans- 
fer within  the  divisions  or  camps.  Sixteen  civilian  supervis- 
ors, directed  by  the  Committee,  acted  in  an  organizing  and 
supervisory  capacity  in  the  field.  Approximately  450  officers 
and  7,000  men  were  engaged  in  this  personnel  work.  The 
number  of  soldiers  interviewed  by  trained  examiners  and 
classified  according  to  their  best  army  usefulness  was  in  all, 
approximately  three  and  a  half  million. 

"  {b)  The  allotment  branch  or  central  clearing  office  of  the 
committee  in  Washington  received  reports  on  the  numbers  of 
skilled  tradesmen  found  In  each  contingent  of  the  draft,  re- 
ceived and  consolidated  requisitions  from  the  Staff  Corps  for 
specialists,  and  prorated  these  requisitions  among  the  various 
camps  according  to  their  supply  of  necessary  skilled  men. 
On  November  ii,  requisitions  for  roughly  600,000  men  of 
designated  qualifications  had  been  filled  here.  Information 
was  available  at  any  moment  for  the  Operations  Division  of 
the  General  Staff  concerning  the  occupational  qualifications 
of  all  men  in  the  several  depot  brigades,  army  vocational 
schools,  and  similar  sources  of  supply. 


I02  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

"  {c)  Trade  specifications  and  index  of  occupations.  Def- 
initions of  the  many  hundred  different  trades  needed  In  our 
military  establishment  were  prepared  after  exhaustive  study, 
and  were  brought  together  In  a  book,  "Army  Trade  Speci- 
fications." This  index  is  an  indispensable  reference  for  Staff 
Corps  and  camp  personnel  officers  in  securing  the  skilled  per- 
sonnel needed. 

"(^)  Tables  of  occupational  needs  and  personnel  specifi- 
cations. Tables  were  prepared  showing  in  detail  the  needs 
for  skilled  workers  in  each  sort  of  platoon,  company,  regiment, 
or  other  unit.  These  tables  were  studied,  criticized,  and  ap- 
proved by  army  units  at  the  front  In  France,  and  later  formed 
the  basis  for  organizing  quickly  the  newest  divisions.  Out  of 
these  occupational  tables  have  developed  the  Personnel  Speci- 
fications which  have  now  been  completed  for  the  enlisted 
personnel  of  four  hundred  different  kinds  of  organizations. 

"  (<?)  Trade  tests.  To  increase  the  accuracy  of  selecting 
skilled  workers  among  the  enlisted  men,  a  system  of  practical 
trade  tests  was  devised,  standardized,  and  installed  In  twenty 
camps.  At  the  time  of  the  armistice  about  130,000  men  who 
claimed  occupational  skill  had  been  trade  tested. 

"  (/)  Personnel  work  for  officers.  Qualification  cards  for 
officers,  furnishing  a  record  of  occupational,  educational  and 
military  experience  and  a  rating  by  superior  officers,  were 
developed  and  put  into  use  throughout  the  army.  These 
cards  are  filed  In  Washington,  and  duplicates  filed  in  the  cus- 
tody of  the  Division  commanders  for  their  own  use  In  assign- 
ing their  officers. 

"  {g)  Rating  of  officers.  A  uniform  system  of  rating  offi- 
cers was  developed.  This  rating  system  was  first  Installed  in 
the  Officers'  Training  Camps  as  an  aid  in  selecting  candidates 
for  commissions.  Later  It  was  used  In  selecting  candidates 
for  Officers'  Training  Schools.  Now  Its  use  is  universal  both 
in  America  and  in  France  as  a  means  of  securing  every  three 
months  a  rating  on  every  officer  as  an  aid  in  determining 
promotion,  demotion,  discharge,  and  appointments  to  the 
Officers'  Reserve  Corps. 

(A)   Commissioned   personnel   specifications.     Definitions 


n 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  103 

of  duties  and  qualifications  of  no  less  than  500  different  kinds 
of  officers  In  the  various  arms  and  branches  of  the  service 
have  been  prepared,  after  ascertaining  the  answer  to  the 
question,  "Just  what  does  he  do?"  These  commissioned 
personnel  specifications  are  for  use  in  recruiting  officer  mat- 
erial, in  selecting  men  for  training  as  officers,  and  making 
assignments.  Statistical  studies  have  been  made  of  the  rela- 
tive significance  of  age,  education,  civilian  earnings,  intelli- 
gence and  other  qualifications  of  officers  In  the  different  corps 
and  arms  of  the  service. 

''(i)  Cooperation  with  the  air  service.  The  methods  of 
selecting  aviators  were  investigated  and  checked  by  reference 
to  the  actual  success  or  failure  of  the  pilots.  An  Improved 
system  of  tests  for  aviation  candidates  was  introduced  and  a 
new  program  of  examination  and  selection  installed. 

"(/")  Cooperation  with  the  Provost  Marshal  General's  Of- 
fice. Plans  for  securing  classificatory  information  regarding 
all  registrants  were  submitted  to  the  Provost  Marshal  Gen- 
eral and  were  partially  embodied  in  the  draft  questionnaire. 

''(^)  Development  Battalions.  The  Committee  cooper- 
ated closely  with  the  General  Staff  and  the  Surgeon  General's 
Office  in  preparing  and  introducing  the  plans  for  segregating, 
sorting,  training,  and  utilizing  the  partially  fit. 

"  (/)  Cooperation  with  the  Surgeon  GeneraFs  Office.  Some 
assistance  was  given  to  the  Division  of  Psychology  of  the 
Surgeon  General's  Ofllice  in  devising  and  administering  the 
intelligence  tests  for  enlisted  men  and  officers.  The  psychol- 
ogists in  turn  have  tested  1,726,000  soldiers  and  furnished 
personnel  oflScers  with  their  intelligence  ratings  to  assist  In 
making  assignments,  balancing  units,  and  selecting  men  for 
special  responsibilities. 

"  (w)  Cooperation  with  the  Navy.  At  the  time  of  the  armi- 
stice, representatives  of  this  committee  were  assisting  the 
Navy  and  the  Marine  Corps  to  prepare  and  install  a  complete 
personnel  classification  program  to  correspond  with  the  army 
system.  In  addition,  one  member  of  the  Committee  has 
done  valuable  work  in  refining  methods  of  selecting  and  train- 
ing men  for  special  duties  in  the  Navy,  such  as  gun-pointing, 


I04  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

hydroplane  listening,  the  work  of  the  fire-control  squad,  and 
the  lookout. 

"(w)  The  War  Service  Exchange.  This  branch  of  the 
Committee  was  established  January  i8,  1918,  to  receive  and 
classify  applications  of  persons  desiring  to  serve  the  govern- 
ment and  to  refer  them  to  the  branches  of  the  service  needing 
them,  and  to  cooperate  with  other  agencies  in  locating  and 
supplying  men  needed  for  special  purposes  by  the  various 
branches  of  the  service.  This  organization  relieved  high  of- 
ficials of  the  War  Department  of  the  necessity  of  devoting 
valuable  time  to  the  interviewing  of  the  many  influential  men 
who  came  to  Washington  to  offer  their  services  to  the  gov- 
ernment. It  also  cared  for  a  total  of  about  one  hundred  and 
ten  thousand  written  proffers  of  service.  It  placed  approxi- 
mately ten  thousand  men,  including  many  of  superior  at- 
tainments. 

"  (0)  Personnel  work  in  the  American  expeditionary  forces. 
Members  of  the  committee  studied  the  personnel  needs  of 
the  A.  E.  F.,  and  with  the  cordial  approval  of  General  Persh- 
ing, established  there  a  personnel  organization  similar  to  that 
in  America.  The  Officers'  Qualification  Cards  have  had  their 
widest  usefulness  overseas,  in  supplying  replacements  and  in 
ocating  rare  specialists  in  emergencies. 

"  (^)  British  experience.  Detailed  study  was  made  of  the 
working  of  the  British  personnel  organization,  which  in  some 
respects  is  far  superior  to  ours.  Special  reports  and  exhibits 
obtained  in  London  from  the  British  War  Office  covered  their 
whole  program  of  recruitment,  classification,  trade-testing, 
assignment  and  transfer;  industrial  furloughs;  weekly  consol- 
idation and  analysis  of  strength  reports;  and  plans  for  de- 
mobilization. 

"This  in  outline  is  a  picture  of  the  Personnel  work,  begun 
in  the  National  Army  cantonments  with  the  arrival  of  the 
first  contingent  of  the  draft.  Neither  the  civilians  nor  the 
army  officers  who  initiated  this  development  dreamed  of  the 
scope  it  would  so  rapidly  assume  or  the  share  it  would  have 
in  effecting  the  speedy  organization  of  a  well  balanced  army, 
trained  and  ready  for  the  critical  hour  in  France. 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  105 

*'The  Committee  on  Classification  of  Personnel  in  the 
Army  as  such  has  disappeared.  After  fourteen  months  of 
service  under  the  Adjutant  General  of  the  Army,  it  was 
transferred  to  the  General  Staff  and  merged  with  the  Central 
Personnel  Branch,  newly  created  to  supervise  the  procure- 
ment, placement,  tranfer  and  promotion  of  officers  through- 
out all  branches  of  the  army.  This  means  that  centralized 
control  of  personnel  work  for  both  officers  and  soldiers  is 
recognized  and  thoroughly  established  as  an  integral  part  of 
the  United  States  Army  organization." 

5,  Committee  on  Recreation  in  the  Army  and  the  Navy. — 
Originally  authorized  by  the  Council  of  the  American  Psycho- 
logical Association,  under  the  chairmanship  of  George  A. 
Coe,  this  committee  was  organized  with  the  following  mem- 
bership: William  C.  Bagley,  Rowland  Haynes,  J.  T.  Patrick, 
J.  H.  Tufts,  and  the  chairman. 

On  acceptance  of  his  appointment  the  chairman  formu- 
lated a  plan  of  work  which  included  important  investigations 
and  the  establishment  of  profitable  cooperative  relations  be- 
tween his  committee  and  the  various  civilian  agencies  con- 
cerned with  recreational  activities  in  military  training  camps. 

Various  unfortunate  circumstances  delayed  the  fulfillment 
of  the  original  plan  and  it  was  finally  decided  that  the  Com- 
mission on  Training  Camp  Activities  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
were  satisfactorily  meeting  the  urgent  demands  of  the  situa- 
tion. 

6.  Committee  on  Problems  of  Vision  which  Have  Military 
Significance. — Authorized  in  April,  1917,  by  the  Council  of 
the  American  Psychological  Association,  this  committee  was 
made  a  subcommittee  of  the  National  Research  Council 
shortly  after  its  organization.  Its  membership  comprised 
R.  P.  Angier,  H.  A.  Carr,  L.  R.  Geissler,  S.  P.  Hayes,  G.  M. 

,  Stratton,  L.  T.  Troland,  and  Raymond  Dodge,  chairman. 
The  chairman  of  the  committee  most  generously  contrib- 
uted his  time  and  professional  skill  to  the  departments  of 
war  and  navy.  Since  much  of  his  practical  work  demanded 
secrecy  and  was  imperfectly  known  even  to  the  Psychology 
Committee,  he   has  been  asked  by  the  chairman  of  the  com- 


lo6  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

mittee  to  prepare  for  this  report  a  summary  account  of  his 
war  service.  This  contribution,  which  follows,  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  chapters  of  the  scientific  history  of  the  war. 
It  Is  more  detailed  than  other  sections  of  this  report  because 
practically  nothing  has  been  published  heretofore  on  most  of 
the  topics. 

Report  of  Lieutenant  Commander  Dodge 

"The  subcommittee  on  vision  shared  with  some  of  the 
other  subcommittees  in  Psychology  the  disadvantages  of 
mutual  Inaccessibility.  Questions  that  were  submitted  com- 
monly required  an  immediate  estimate  for  prompt  action. 
There  was  neither  time  for  nor  expectation  of  a  complete  or 
final  solution.  The  military  situations  that  we  had  to  ana- 
lyze were  not  infrequently  of  a  highly  confidential  character. 
In  some  cases  the  suggestion  that  the  matters  be  referred  to  a 
committee  for  investigation  met  with  quite  emphatic  disap- 
proval. Moreover,  the  Initial  visual  problems  that  we  came 
upon  commonly  turned  out  to  be  so  Intimately  related  to 
non-visual  factors  that  they  became  the  least  important  part 
of  the  investigation.  So  It  came  about  that  in  spite  of  the 
enthusiastic  cooperation  of  a  splendid  committee,  the  com- 
mittee form  of  partitioned  investigations  In  our  case  proved 
impracticable  during  war  times.  We  had  to  work  as  indi- 
viduals at  top  speed. 

"In  the  early  psychological  war  problems  in  whose  solu- 
tion it  was  my  privilege  to  participate,  the  conspicuous  fea- 
tures were  the  failure  of  military  authorities  to  appreciate 
the  reality  of  the  mental  problems,  even  when  they  were  the 
main  problems  of  a  situation,  and  the  failure  of  military  tra- 
ditions to  meet  the  new  problems  of  human  engineering  which 
modern  warfare  occasioned.  The  great  service  of  the  mili- 
tary psychologist  was  to  analyze  out  of  the  situations  the 
human  and  mental  problem,  to  give  these  phases  of  the  mili- 
tary problems  precise  formulation  and  then  to  bring  to  bear 
his  laboratory  and  scientific  traditions  In  meeting  the  situa- 
tions as  they  were  analyzed. 

'The  military  danger  In  the  next  few  years  of  peace  is 


<(' 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  107 

that  with  the  passing  of  the  present  crisis,  so  few  military 
officers  are  capable  of  carrying  on  the  mental  researches.  I 
fear  that  some  other  nation  may  take  up  the  mental  analyses 
where  we  left  them  when  the  emergency  ceased,  and  may  de- 
velop a  real  military  psychology  that  will  be  more  deadly 
than  42  cm.  guns.  Our  efforts,  however  excellent  and  how- 
ever valuable,  are  only  the  first  crude  beginnings  of  such  a 
military  psychology. 

"In  reviewing  my  war  work  correspondence,  it  is  inter- 
esting and  instructive  to  note  that  while  the  practicable 
means  of  attack  was  often  delayed  for  months,  and  the  prac- 
tical occasion  for  developing  the  problem  was  often  quite  un- 
connected with  the  inquiry  from  the  Research  Council,  every 
one  of  my  leads  for  service  came  first  from  the  Research 
Council.  Furthermore,  in  spite  of  some  moments  of  personal 
discouragement  and  misgiving,  not  one  of  the  inquiries  that 
came  to  me  in  this  way  proved  either  useless  or  impracticable. 
It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  a  very  high  tribute  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  guidance  of  our  chairman  and  his  colleagues  of  the  Re- 
search Council.  The  only  serious  difficulty  in  the  path  of 
scientific  service  was  the  initial  lack  of  confidence  of  the  au- 
thorities. When  confidence  was  once  established,  their  faith 
in  our  ability  to  turn  the  desired  tricks  became  an  embar- 
rassment, and  the  only  limit  to  service  was  the  limit  of  human 
endurance. 

"The  months  that  I  devoted  exclusively  to  national  ser- 
vice seem  in  retrospect  a  kind  of  scientific  excursion.  The 
shadow  of  sorrow  at  their  close  comes  from  the  fact  that  with 
the  rotation  of  military  service  the  old  chiefs  for  whom  we 
worked  and  would  have  followed  to  the  death  If  necessary  are 
being  replaced  by  strangers  who  know  nothing  of  our  limita- 
tions nor  our  scientific  potentialities. 

"Shortly  after  the  Committee  on  Psychology  was  organ- 
ized, Chairman  Yerkes  referred  to  me  as  an  inquiry  from  Dr. 
Mendenhall  of  the  National  Research  Council  the  question 
whether  we  could  recommend  tests  to  select  gun-pointers  for 
merchantmen.  The  records  of  our  efforts  to  answer  that  in- 
quiry and  of  the  vastly  greater  efforts  to  get  our  answer  across 


io8  REPORT  OF   THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

are  Intensely  human  documents.  The  first  was  a  relatively 
simple  problem  of  analysis  of  reactions,  adaptation  of  ap- 
proved laboratory  practice,  and  construction  of  a  suitable 
recording  device.  Four  days  after  the  receipt  of  the  Inquiry 
I  outlined  the  Instrument  that  we  used  later,  and  I  guaranteed 
its  success.  The  second  was  a  problem  of  salesmanship. 
Every  gunnery  officer  who  saw  the  instrument  work  was  en- 
thusiastic from  the  start,  but  It  was  months  later  before  the 
official  wall  of  suspicion  and  red  tape  was  passed. 

"On  June  ii,  I  reported  the  construction  and  successful 
trial  of  an  Instrument  to  test  gun  pointers.  It  gave  a  series 
of  graphic  records  of  the  fundamental  processes  involved  In 
training  a  gun  on  a  moving  target,  under  as  nearly  service 
conditions  as  possible.  Simple  Inspection  of  these  graphic 
records,  without  elaborate  computation,  showed  (i)  the  la- 
tency of  beginning  the  training  of  the  gun  to  a  movement  of 
the  target;  (2)  the  accuracy  with  which  the  actual  movement 
of  the  target  was  followed;  (3)  the  latent  time  of  reacting  to 
a  change  in  the  apparent  motion  of  the  target;  (4)  the  effect 
on  the  aim  of  pressing  the  firing  key;  (5)  the  accuracy  of  the 
aim  at  the  moment  of  discharge. 

"This  instrument  was  set  up  and  tested  on  expert  marks- 
men and  Inexperienced  recruits  of  the  U.  S.  S.  Georgia  and 
the  U.  S.  S.  Pennsylvania.  The  records  show  marked  indi- 
vidual dlfi"erences.  The  best  gun-pointers  gave  the  best  rec- 
ords; the  untrained  recruits  the  poorest.  But  among  the 
partially  trained,  some  consistently  followed  the  moving  tar- 
get with  short  reaction  time  and  considerable  satlsfactori- 
ness;  some  showed  promising  Improvement  within  the  five 
trials  permitted. 

"The  instrument  consists  of  an  aluminum  recording  drum 
mounted  on  a  horizontal  axis.  This  is  turned  at  an  even  rate 
through  an  arc  of  approximately  ninety  degrees  by  a  weighted 
piston  falling  in  a  cylinder  of  oil  with  a  predetermined  by-pass. 
The  weighted  piston  as  it  falls  also  moves  the  target  in  a  horizontal 
plane.  Thus  the  target  starts  when  the  drum  starts  and  stops 
when  the  drum  stops.  A  long  recording  lever  (one  meter)  writes  on 
the  drum  with  a  lead  pencil.     This  lever  is  moved  by  the  person  to 


OF   THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  109 

be  tested  in  the  endeavor  to  keep  a  hair  line  in  the  sighting  tele- 
scope, which  is  mounted  on  the  recording  lever,  on  the  center  of 
the  target.  The  reaction  latency  of  the  person  to  be  tested  is 
shown  by  the  distance  that  the  target  and  drum  move  before  the 
recording  lever  starts.  His  accuracy  is  shown  by  the  approxima- 
tion of  his  record  to  a  normal  line  which  is  recorded  when  the  lever 
which  carries  the  target  is  temporarily  clamped  to  the  recording 
lever.  The  moment  of  firing  is  indicated  by  the  perforation  of  the 
record  by  a  jump  spark. 

"The  practical  utilization  of  this  instrument  remained  con- 
fined to  the  U.  S.  S.  Georgia  and  U.  S.  S.  Pennsylvania  where 
it  was  tried  out.  It  never  got  by  the  Office  of  Gunnery  Exer- 
cises. Considerably  later,  I  submitted  a  plan  for  a  robust 
training  model  of  this  instrument  to  Captain  E.  L.  Bennett 
of  the  Training  Section  of  the  Bureau  of  Navigation.  The 
instrument  was  intended  for  shore  training  to  offset  the  lack 
of  dotter  equipment  in  the  naval  training  stations.  Construc- 
ted by  authority  and  at  the  expense  of  the  Committee  on 
Classification  of  Personnel,  this  instrument  was  set  up  in  the 
Armed  Guard  Camp  of  the  New  York  Navy  Yard.  It  proved 
an  instant  success.  Its  use  was  developed  to  greatest  effi- 
ciency at  this  place  under  Lieutenant  Norton.  Under  orders 
from  the  Bureau  of  Navigation  a  number  of  replicas  were 
built  by  the  Armed  Guard  Camp  of  the  New  York  Navy  Yard 
for  other  training  stations. 

"The  instrument  consists  of  a  battery  of  four  skeleton 
guns,  with  training  or  pointing  gear,  a  mechanism  for  giving 
the  targets  a  series  of  harmonic  wave  motions  of  great  variety 
and  complexity,  a  recording  device,  that  shows  each  move- 
ment of  the  target  and  the  corresponding  movements  of  the 
gun  as  the  pointer  or  trainer  tries  to  follow  It,  and  a  firing 
device,  that  not  only  Indicates  the  accuracy  of  the  pointing 
but  also  the  effect  of  the  effort  to  fire  on  the  pointing  coord- 
inations. 

"The  object  of  the  Instrument  is  to  furnish  land  conditions 
for  teaching  a  recruit  the  coordinations  of  hand  and  eye  essen- 
tial to  pointing  and  firing  at  a  moving  target  at  sea.  It  was 
designed  as  a  robust  practice  Instrument  which  could  be  repro- 


no  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

duced  In  any  desired  quantity  at  relatively  small  expense, 
and  without  demanding  the  services  of  expert  machinists  for 
construction.  The  graphic  record  was  added  to  show  the 
pointer  and  his  Instructor  the  relative  adequacy  of  the  point- 
ing at  each  moment.  The  movements  of  the  target,  the 
sights,  and  the  training  mechanism  were  designed  to  dupli- 
cate actual  service  conditions  as  closely  as  practicable  in 
simple  construction. 

"Successive  records  of  the  same  recruit  furnish  a  record 
of  his  progress  in  acquiring  the  coordinations  necessary  for 
gun-pointing.  Gross  incapacity  or  natural  aptitude  will  be 
apparent  In  such  a  series.  The  instrument  thus  serves  the 
double  purpose  of  a  shore-training  device  and  a  test  by  which 
marked  natural  inaptitude  may  be  discovered  with  a  minimum 
loss  of  time. 

"Since  the  instrument  is  quite  robust  it  is  practicable  for 
interested  recruits  to  practice  gun-pointing  with  it  at  odd 
times  by  themselves  and  without  supervision.  Experience 
with  the  instrument  shows  that  the  recruits  do  take  an  inter- 
est in  It  and  use  it  practically  continuously  when  permitted 
to  do  so. 

"The  base  of  the  apparatus  consists  of  a  rectangular  pipe  frame- 
work, four  feet  high,  six  feet  long,  and  two  and  one  half  feet  wide. 
Each  corner  post  carries  an  adjustable  seat  for  the  gun-pointer, 
and  a  skeleton  gun.  The  latter  is  really  a  peep  sight  built  Into  an 
iron  pipe.  This  may  be  trained  by  a  two-handed  belt  gear.  At 
its  muzzle  end  each  skeleton  gun  carries  a  light  but  rigid  recording 
lever,  armed  on  its  distal  end  with  a  soft  lead  pencil  for  making  the 
records. 

"The  targets  for  the  four  guns  are  carried  on  a  platform  that 
moves  across  their  line  of  action.  The  device  for  giving  the  tar- 
gets an  Irregular  series  of  harmonic  wave  motions  corresponding  to 
the  movements  of  a  floating  gun-platform  consists  of  a  motor  which 
drives  a  set  of  three  wooden  pulleys.  The  first  pulley  serves  merely 
as  a  reducing  gear.  The  second  and  third  pulleys  carry  eccentric 
attachments  to  pull  the  target  platform  a  greater  or  shorter  dis- 
tance, at  greater  or  less  velocity,  according  as  they  work  together 
or  in  more  or  less  complete  opposition.  The  slack  of  the  eccentrics 
is  taken  up  by  a  long  spring,  which  is  attached  to  the  target  plat- 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  m 

form  and  works  in  opposition  to  the  pull  of  the  motor.  As  it  worked 
out,  this  series  of  wave  motions  has  been  commented  on  most  favor- 
ably by  all  the  experienced  pointers  who  have  observed  it.  With- 
out exception  they  have  said  that  it  was  the  best  artificial  target 
motion  that  they  had  ever  seen  on  a  dotter.  By  shifting  the  driv- 
ing belt  on  the  reducing  pulleys,  it  is  possible  to  imitate  the  move- 
ments of  a  slowly  moving  gun-platform  or  a  rapidly  moving  one  at 
will.  Observers  of  experience  name  these  speeds  battleship  roll, 
merchantman  roll,  and  destroyer  roll. 

"Instead  of  moving  the  target  platform  directly  across  the 
frame,  the  track  on  which  it  moves  is  laid  at  an  angle  of  forty-five 
degrees  to  the  main  frame.  This  makes  the  target  travel  the  hypot- 
enuse of  a  right  isosceles  triangle,  of  which  the  transverse  leg  would 
give  the  apparent  displacement  of  the  target  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  trainer.  The  other  leg  in  the  direction  of  the  axis  of  the  gun 
furnishes  the  conditions  for  the  record  of  correlated  movements  of 
target  and  gun.  Thus  a  line  traced  by  the  recording  lever  which  is 
attached  to  each  gun  and  writes  on  a  sheet  of  paper  laid  on  the  tar- 
get platform,  will  represent  point  for  point  each  movement  of  the 
target  and  the  gun.  If  the  gun  remains  stationary  while  the  target 
moves,  this  record  line  will  be  an  oblique  line  at  an  angle  of  forty- 
five  degrees  to  the  gun  axis.  If  the  gun  moves  while  the  target  is 
stationary,  the  record  will  show  a  straight  line  transverse  to  the 
axis  of  the  gun.  If  the  gun  moves  exactly  with  the  target,  that  is, 
if  absolutely  accurate  pointing  is  maintained  throughout  the  move- 
ment of  the  target,  the  record  will  be  a  straight  line  in  the  axis  of 
the  gun.  This  latter  is  an  impossible  ideal  of  perfect  pointing. 
All  the  records  show  a  greater  or  less  number  of  irregularities  inci- 
dent to  the  reaction  time  of  the  pointer  and  the  imperfections  of 
his  coordinations.  Improvement  of  the  pointer  in  the  essentials 
shows  itself  in  the  gradual  reduction  of  the  lateral  displacements 
of  the  record  from  the  theoretically  perfect  record  of  a  single 
straight  line.  The  record  of  each  performance  may  be  analyzed  for 
the  benefit  of  the  recruit  immediately  after  each  trial.  For  this 
purpose,  it  is  probably  expedient  not  to  have  the  practice  records 
too  long.  Short  records  are  less  complicated  and  may  be  more 
easily  analyzed.  Moreover,  the  recruit  can  remember  better  what 
he  did  if  the  record  is  not  too  long. 

"Following  the  recommendations  of  Lieutenant  Norton, 
U.  S.  N.,  the  instrument  was  adapted  so  that  the  targets 
could  be  given  a  vertical  motion  for  practice  In  pointing  as 


112  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

well  as  a  horizontal  motion  for  training.  This  was  done 
optically  by  introducing  a  total  reflection  prism  into  the  eye 
pieces  of  two  of  the  skeleton  guns.  To  reproduce  for  the 
gun-pointer  the  errors  of  his  training  mate,  so  that  he  could 
get  practice  in  watching  the  vertical  wire  while  firing,  an 
artificial  training  error  was  introduced  mechanically  at  fixed 
points  of  the  motion  of  the  target  platform.  At  first  thought 
this  would  seem  to  give  the  training  error  such  a  mechanical 
constancy  that  it  could  be  predicted  and  therefore  ignored. 
This  is  absolutely  not  the  case.  It  follows  the  non-predict- 
able character  of  the  main  displacement  of  the  target,  be- 
cause the  arbitrary  training  error  will  appear  at  every  phase 
of  the  more  or  less  extended  movements  of  the  targets,  while 
on  the  records  they  will  appear  only  in  homologous  parts  of 
the  curves. 

"Firing  records  are  introduced  in  the  pointing  records  by 
pressing  an  electric  button,  which  closes  a  circuit  operating  a 
small  electric  bell,  only  instead  of  hitting  the  bell,  the  buzzing 
armature  hits  the  pencil  holder.  This  makes  a  dot  on  the 
records  when  the  gun  is  standing  still,  and  a  waved  line  in- 
stead of  a  simple  line  when  the  gun  is  moving.  The  firing 
will  be  perfect  only  when  these  dots  and  waves  appear  on  a 
straight  line  along  the  theoretically  perfect  pointing  line,  at 
those  parts  of  the  record  that  are  free  from  the  artificial  train- 
ing errors. 

"The  artificial  training  error  is  produced  by  placing  irreg- 
ularities on  the  track  of  the  target  platform,  over  which  a 
friction  wheel  glides.  This  is  attached  to  a  series  of  levers 
that  add  a  vertical  motion  to  the  main  horizontal  movements 
of  the  targets.  Since  the  optical  system  transforms  the  hori- 
zontal motion  into  a  vertical  one  for  the  pointer,  it  transforms 
these  slight  vertical  movements  of  the  target  into  errors  of 
training. 

"The  actual  uses  of  the  pointing  instrument  will  probably 
vary  according  to  the  needs  and  inclinations  of  the  groups  for 
which  they  are  available.  Quite  tentatively,  I  suggested  the 
following:  Entirely  raw  recruits  should  probably  be  intro- 
duced only  to  the  training  mechanisms,  without  recording  all 


OF   THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  113 

their  trials.  The  instructor  can  see  all  the  main  features  of 
the  training  errors.  Occasional  regular  records  should  be 
taken  at  this  stage  only  to  show  the  rate  of  progress  or  as  the 
mechanical  proof  of  the  judgment  of  the  instructor  that  the 
recruit  was  or  was  not  fitted  to  go  on.  Probably  the  men  who 
make  the  best  progress,  or  some  proportion  of  them,  should 
then  be  introduced  to  the  firing  pointer's  more  complex  co- 
ordinations. Each  group  should  be  encouraged  to  practice 
by  themselves  without  records.  The  formal  records  of  each 
group  should  be  posted  to  stimulate  competition.  Each  rec- 
ord should  have  the  benefit  of  individual  criticism.  The  rec- 
ords of  the  trainers  will  show  if  the  recruit's  attention  lapsed; 
if  he  got  mixed  up  in  the  manipulation  of  his  gears;  if  he 
started  too  slowly;  if  he  tried  to  beat  the  roll;  if  he  was  irreg- 
ular and  jerky — as  well  as  the  accuracy  of  his  training.  The 
records  of  the  pointers  will  show  similar  faults  in  the  pointing 
coordinations,  and  in  addition,  if  he  fired  when  the  vertical 
wire  was  ofi";  if  he  stopped  pointing  to  press  the  firing  button; 
if  he  failed  to  fire  when  on;  if  he  fired  off";  as  well  as  whether 
he  failed  to  "follow  through"  sufficiently  long  after  pressing 
his  firing  key. 

"Undoubtedly  others  besides  raw  recruits  would  profit  by 
occasional  graphic  records  and  their  criticism,  especially  those 
whose  work  at  actual  target  practice  failed  to  give  evidence 
of  adequate  coordinations. 

"The  following  letter  from  Rear  Admiral  L.  C.  Palmer 
was  a  very  welcome  summary  of  the  naval  estimate  of  the 
instrument: 

Navy  Department, 
Bureau  of  Navigation, 
Washington,  D.  C,  March  4,   1918 

My  dear  Professor  Dodge:  This  Bureau  is  in  receipt  of  an  offi- 
cial report  from  the  Commanding  Officer  of  the  Armed  Draft  De- 
tail at  the  Navy  Yard,  New  York,  containing  a  description  of  an 
instrument  devised  by  you  for  the  primary  purpose  of  selecting 
from  among  recruits  those  who  are  naturally  fitted  for  training  as 
gun-pointers. 

The  report  indicates  that  in  addition  to  fulfilling  its  primary 
purpose,  the  instrument  has  proven  of  great  value  as  a  device  for 


114  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

training  selected  men,  both  as  gun  pointers  and  gun  trainers.     In 
this  connection  the  report  says  in  part: 

'This  instrument  has  been  in  constant  use  now  for  over  a  month. 
During  this  time  it  has  been  found  to  be  of  great  value,  not  only  for 
classification  of  pointers,  but  further,  for  their  actual  training.  De- 
spite the  almost  constant  use  of  this  machine  by  different  persons, 
no  parts  have  become  worn  out  or  broken.  It  further  has  the  most 
important  advantage  of  being  popular  with  the  personnel  who  are 
being  trained,  and  it  has  been  found  that  the  enlisted  personnel 
make  use  of  this  instrument  upon  their  own  volition  outside  of 
drill  periods.  The  motion  of  the  target,  derived  by  the  design  of 
this  instrument,  is  by  far  the  best  the  Commanding  Officer  has 
ever  seen,  and  this  opinion  is  supported  by  various  other  officers 
who  have  experimented  with  it.  The  diagram  which  is  obtained 
from  each  pointer  or  trainer  tells  precisely  how  close  to  the  target 
the  man  has  kept  during  his  period  and  further  whether  or  not  he 
fired  when  on.  The  records  of  these  pointers  or  trainers  are  kept 
from  day  to  day  and  one  is  soon  able  to  tell  whether  or  not  the  in- 
dividuals will  ever  pick  up  the  necessary  requisites  for  efficiency  as 
such.' 

You  may  be  further  interested  to  know  that  the  Bureau  has 
taken  steps  to  have  the  experimental  instrument  reproduced  and 
furnished  as  a  standard  training  device  for  recruits  at  all  large 
training  camps. 

I  beg  to  take  advantage  of  this  opportunity  to  express  to  you 
our  sincere  appreciation  of  the  value  of  what  you  have  done  and  are 
doing  to  assist  in  the  very  heavy  burden  imposed  upon  the  Bureau 
In  the  present  emergency;  and  I  may  add  that  we  are  also  deeply 
sensible  of  your  spirit  of  unselfish  devotion  to  the  cause  which  we 
all  have  so  deeply  at  heart.  You  have  given  us  most  freely  of  your 
valuable  time  and  have,  I  suspect,  made  other  personal  sacrifices 
of  moment,  and  have  declined  to  consider  any  method  of  compen- 
sation. I  hope  that  this  wholly  unsolicited  expression  of  the  Bu- 
reau's gratitude  will  not  be  quite  unwelcome. 

I  am  taking  the  liberty  of  sending  a  copy  of  this  letter  to  the 
President  of  Wesleyan  University. 

Again  thanking  you,  I  am 

Sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)  Leigh  C.  Palmer, 

Rear  Admiral,  U.  S.  Navy, 
Chief  of  Bureau 


OF   THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  115 

"While  we  were  trying  out  our  instrument  for  testing  gun- 
pointers  it  became  increasingly  evident  that  the  problem  of 
picking  prospective  gun-pointers  was  regarded  by  most  naval 
officers  with  whom  I  came  in  contact  as  only  one  of  a  group 
of  interrelated  problems  of  picking  the  most  suitable  men  for 
the  various  tasks  of  the  Navy.  This  was  first  emphasized 
by  Lieutenant  Mayo  of  the  U.  S.  S.  Georgia;  then  by  Captain 
Plunkett  of  the  Office  of  Gunnery  Exercises,  and  by  Com- 
manders Bingham  and  McClintic,  and  Lieutenant  Shannon 
of  the  U.  S.  S.  Pennsylvania. 

"In  view  of  these  reiterated  suggestions,  and  in  view  of 
the  wide  scope  of  the  permission  granted  me  by  the  Honor- 
able Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  visit  the  fleet  for  analysis  of 
the  naval  tasks,  I  undertook  to  do  for  the  plotting  room  what 
I  had  done  for  gun-pointing.  After  observing  the  various 
tasks  of  the  plotting  room,  I  tried  to  reduce  them  to  their 
simplest  psychological  terms,  then  to  devise  corresponding 
test  methods,  and  finally  to  combine  them  in  a  single  form  or 
blank  that  would  disclose  at  a  glance,  without  elaborate  com- 
putation, the  relative  fitness  of  the  several  recruits  for  plot- 
ting room  service. 

"The  tests  finally  recommended  were:  the  ability  to  re- 
peat clearly  by  telephone  a  series  of  ordinary  commands  that 
were  received  by  telephone,  the  ability  to  remember  and  re- 
peat numerals,  to  read  a  circular  scale,  to  read  a  plotting 
scale  and  to  lay  off  distances  to  scale,  together  with  neatness 
and  accuracy  in  drawing  and  subdividing  simple  geometrical 
figures.  All  these  data,  except  the  telephone  test  were  ar- 
ranged on  a  single  blank  which  could  be  estimated  at  a  glance 
as  good,  medium,  and  poor. 

"It  proved  impracticable  to  follow  the  history  of  this  test, 
to  work  up  the  correlations  between  test  and  performance, 
or  to  modify  the  test  according  to  experience.  I  was  informed 
later  that  the  tests,  substantially  as  originally  submitted, 
were  adopted  throughout  the  Atlantic  Fleet  for  the  selection 
of  men  for  the  plotting  room,  and  that  they  were  saving  a 
great  deal  of  time  and  trouble. 

"A  plan  was  submitted  at  the  same  time  for  a  more  ex- 


Ii6  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

haustlve  series  of  tests  for  a  considerable  variety  of  naval 
tasks  based  on  an  analysis  of  the  tasks.  This  plan  would 
probably  have  been  carried  out  to  some  degree  at  least,  if 
the  armistice  had  not  cut  short  our  naval  'career.' 

"The  connection  between  the  subcommittee  on  vision  and 
the  Listeners'  School  is  not  altogether  clear  even  to  myself. 
But  we  were  not  fastidious  in  the  selection  of  tasks  provided 
they  would  help  win  the  war. 

"One  of  the  minor  but  necessary  tasks  of  the  Training 
Section  of  the  Bureau  of  Navigation  was  to  find  properly 
equipped  men  for  the  new  Listeners'  School  without  robbing 
other  training  schools  of  their  regular  quotas.  It  was  a  rela- 
tively simple  problem  in  the  economy  of  human  material  and 
personnel,  but  one  for  which  no  data  were  available.  At  the 
request  of  Captain  Bennett,  U.  S.  N.,  Chief  of  the  Training 
Section,  I  analyzed  the  requirements  of  the  Listeners'  School. 

"On  the  basis  of  that  analysis,  I  elaborated  a  series  of 
tests  for  candidates  for  the  Listeners'  School  and  was  sent  to 
various  training  stations  to  pick  students  from  the  enlisted 
personnel.  After  correcting  the  tests  from  the  school  ex- 
perience with  the  first  few  quotas,  I  was  able  to  make  a  de- 
tailed recommendation  for  the  examination  of  candidates. 
With  the  cordial  assistance  of  Naval  medical  officers  in  the 
several  Districts,  these  tests  afforded  the  Listeners'  School  a 
selected  student  personnel  from  which  80  per  cent,  to  95  per 
cent,  of  each  class  passed  the  course,  all  without  seriously 
affecting  the  supply  of  suitable  men  for  other  naval  schools. 

"Without  divulging  anything  that  might  be  regarded  as 
a  military  secret,  the  general  plan  of  the  tests  is  indicated  in 
the  following  statement  which  has  already  been  published  by 
authority  of  the  Bureau  of  Navigation. 

I.  Candidates  for  the  Listeners'  School  were  selected  by  the 
following  processes: 

{a)  Their  Navy  record  in  the  Training  Station. 

{b)  Their  education  (or  other  indication  of  intelligence). 

(c)   A  special  medical  examination. 

{d)  A  group  elimination  examination. 

(<f)   An  individual  stethoscope  test. 

(/)   A  final  compensator  test. 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  117 

2.  All  candidates  for  examination  are  selected  by  their  officers. 
Candidates  must  have: 

{a)  The  general  training  of  a  seaman,  especially  military  dis- 
cipline, care  of  a  seaman's  belongings  and  person,  and  the 
ability  to  handle  firearms  effectively, 

{h)  General  intelligence  sufficient  to  profit  by  an  intensive 
course  of  school  work. 

(c)    Loyalty  to  and  interest  in  Naval  work. 

{d)  Enough  self-reliance  and  initiative  to  carry  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  Listeners'  task. 

(if)    Enough  team -spirit  to  make  him  livable  in  cramped  quarters. 

3.  In  the  absence  of  other  clear  indications  of  the  requisite  gen- 
eral intelligence  to  profit  by  the  intensive  course  of  school  training 
required  of  Listeners  (2^),  it  is  required  that  candidates  have  at 
least  two  years  of  high  school.  Other  indications  of  superior  in- 
telligence would  be  a  record  of  success  at  some  electrical  trade,  or 
some  business  where  the  candidate  had  given  evidence  of  superior 
mental  ability. 

4.  The  medical  examination  of  candidates  emphasizes  the  integ- 
rity and  normal  functioning  of  the  auditory  apparatus,  with  less 
emphasis  on  the  visual  equipment. 

5.  The  group  elimination  examination  aims  to  eliminate  from 
the  group  selected  by  their  officer  those  men  who  are  least  fitted 
for  the  special  tasks  of  the  listener. 

The  ideal  examination  would  probablv  be  to  try  out  every  can- 
didate with  the  special  apparatus  used  under  the  actual  conditions 
of  service.  Since  that  seems  to  be  impracticable,  a  set  of  tests  had 
to  be  developed  that  would  correspond  to  those  tasks  as  closely  as 
possible.  After  a  considerable  experience  with  the  men  selected 
by  these  tests,  consequent  to  which  the  tests  have  been  checked  and 
corrected,  it  seems  important  to  give  them  as  uniformly  as  possible 
in  all  Naval  Districts,  and  to  make  no  intentional  change  either  in 
substance  or  method  until  that  change  has  been  fully  considered  by 
the  Bureau  of  Navigation  and  checked  by  correlation  with  the  ac- 
tual work  of  the  men  at  the  school. 

6.  The  mental  test  consists  of  four  parts. 

{a)  The  memory  span  for  4-,  5-,  and  6-place  digits. 

{b)  The  ability  to  read  a  circular  scale  to  an  error  of  one  degree. 

(c)  The  ability  to  locate  the  source  of  sounds  from  behind  a 
long  horizontal  screen. 

{d)  The  ability  to  discriminate  between  softly  spoken  or  whis- 
pered syllables  and  nonsense  words. 


Ii8  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

7.  Candidates  who  reach  a  grade  of  75  per  cent,  in  this  elimina- 
tion test  are  given  an  individual  examination  in  their  ability  to 
discriminate  phase  difference,  with  a  stethoscope  attached  to  a 
rubber  tube.  This  individual  test  also  serves  the  following  pur- 
poses: (a)  To  check  other  sources  of  information  covering  the  can- 
didate's personal  qualifications,  (b)  To  estimate  the  quickness 
and  certainty  of  his  reactions. 

8.  The  final  process  in  the  selection  of  candidates  for  the  Lis- 
teners' School  was  conducted  by  myself.  In  this  examination  It  is 
assumed  that  all  candidates  have  the  minimum  qualifications  de- 
tailed above.  No  regular  effort  is  made  to  check  these  qualifica- 
tions except  in  the  matter  of  schooling.  Before  examining  a  candi- 
date a  brief  typewritten  statement  of  instructions  Is  given  to  him. 
Failure  to  understand  or  to  follow  these  Instructions  leads  to  a  more 
careful  review  of  the  candidate's  general  intelligence. 

9.  The  purposes  of  the  final  examination  are: 

(a)  To  serve  as  a  check  on  the  preliminary  elimination  In  the 

several  Naval  Districts  and  to  standardize  the  results. 
That  Is:  It  sometimes  happens  that  in  filling  its  required 
quota  one  District  Is  compelled  to  include  some  men  of  a 
relatively  low  grade.  By  comparison  of  all  the  candidates 
at  one  place  it  is  possible  to  apply  a  common  standard 
Irrespective  of  the  Naval  Station  from  which  they  came. 

(b)  To  estimate  a  number  of  factors  that  could  not  easily  be 

tested  without  special  training  and  apparatus. 

10.  The  Instrument  used  for  making  the  final  examination  Is  a 
simplified  compensator  designed  for  the  purpose  and  is  constructed 
as  follows: 

On  a  suitable  standard  two  concentric  wooden  wheels  are 
mounted.  One  wheel  facing  the  examinee  measures  thirty  cm.  In 
diameter.  This  is  his  compensating  wheel.  The  compensating 
wheel  Is  operated  by  the  examinee  as  though  It  were  a  real  compen- 
sator. The  other  wheel  just  behind  the  standard  and  hidden  from 
the  view  of  the  examinee  measures  26  cm.  The  position  of  this 
wheel  determines  the  difference  In  wave  phase.  It  carries  on  Its 
periphery  the  middle  third  of  a  rubber  tube  which  is  two  meters 
long.  The  ends  of  the  tube  are  carried  through  the  hollow  axis 
of  the  wheels  to  a  stethoscope.  The  exact  middle  of  the  tube  Is 
plainly  marked  on  the  operator's  side,  and  the  tube  Is  cemented 
firmly  in  place  on  the  wheel.  The  concentric  wheels  can  be  turned 
independently  to   prevent  secondary  identification  marks.     Slight 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  119 

friction  in  the  bearings  prevents  any  accidental  lag.  A  noise 
roughly  approximating  the  revolution  of  a  submarine  propeller  is 
produced  by  rubbing  the  tube  lightly  with  a  bare  lead-pencil  lead. 
If  a  circular  motion  is  given  to  the  lead  the  number  of  revolutions 
as  well  as  the  noise  quality  can  be  imitated. 

11.  The  candidate  after  reading  his  instructions  sits  at  a  table 
opposite  the  operator  with  the  simplified  compensator  between 
them  while  the  operator  rubs  the  rubber  tube  at  some  arbitrary 
height  above  the  table  with  the  naked  lead  of  a  lead  pencil.  The 
candidate  rotates  his  compensator  wheel  until  the  sound  seems  to 
be  dead  ahead.  If  the  localization  is  perfect  the  center  of  the  tube 
should  be  directly  under  the  operator's  pencil. 

12.  Preliminary  trials  must  always  be  insisted  on  until  the  exam- 
inee has  a  clear  idea  of  his  task.  If  there  is  any  indication  of  fail- 
ure to  understand  the  task  the  candidate  is  verbally  instructed  by 
the  operator.  But  if  inability  to  understand  the  task,  inability  to 
learn  the  direction  in  which  the  wheel  must  be  rotated,  or  if  gross 
faults  of  manipulation  are  persistent,  the  candidate  is  eliminated. 
The  practice  is  to  permit  any  failing  candidate  to  repeat  his  exam- 
ination at  any  later  examination  period  as  long  as  he  is  still  eager 
to  do  so.  Eagerness  is  a  good  indication.  Unfortunately  only 
about  one  candidate  in  twenty  is  able  to  better  his  record  mate- 
rially. 

13.  If  a  candidate  locates  the  center  within  an  average  error  of 
one  cm.,  quickly,  consistently,  and  without  gross  variations,  he  is 
passed  by  the  examiner.  If  there  is  any  persistent  difficulty  a 
static  localization  test  is  given,  in  which  the  following  points  are 
noted  in  four  grades  of  excellence: 

{a)  Right  or  left  displacement  of  the  center. 
{b)   Breadth  of  the  center, 
(c)    Consistency  of  the  reactions. 
{d)  Quickness  and  sureness  of  reaction. 

If  the  candidate  passes  this  test  he  is  then  given  another  active 
compensation  test. 

14.  A  strict  watch  is  kept  by  the  operator  for  disqualifying  per- 
sonal qualities.  No  grouches,  boneheads,  discontented  or  notably 
immature  candidates  are  knowingly  sent  on  to  the  School. 

"The  success  of  this  selective  process  has  a  rather  inter- 
esting theoretical  bearing.  The  task  obviously  lay  outside 
my  proper  field,  as  I  do  not  pretend  to  know  the  psychology 
of  audition.     Perhaps  this  was  not  a  serious  handicap  since 


142182 


I20  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

if  we  had  depended  on  our  psychological  traditions  of  the 
localization  of  sound  we  would  have  missed  the  point  of  the 
new  localizing  apparatus.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  followed 
here  as  elsewhere  the  general  principle  of  using  a  replica  of  the 
actual  task  for  test  purposes  instead  of  any  presumptively 
correlated  tasks.  The  results  seemed  to  justify  the  method. 
I  believe  that  it  is  theoretically  sound. 

"In  the  spring  of  191 8  the  Chemical  Warfare  Service  of 
the  Bureau  of  Mines  made  specific  inquiry  through  the  Re- 
search Council  as  to  the  importance  of  certain  visual  limita- 
tions of  the  standard  production  mask.^  The  matter  was  re- 
ferred to  me,  and  after  consultation  with  various  members  of 
the  Service,  I  undertook  to  answer  the  inquiry,  and  was  ap- 
pointed Consulting  Psychologist.  From  the  moment  that  I 
put  on  a  mask  it  became  obvious  that  the  visual  conditions 
of  tenancy  Interacted  with  various  psychological  and  physio- 
logical conditions. 

"My  report  on  the  visual  factors  which  are  involved  in 
continuous  tenancy  of  gas  masks  aimed  to  summarize  the 
relevant  traditions  of  physiological  optics,  laying  especial  em- 
phasis on  the  military  advantages  of  peripheral  vision,  and 
discussing  the  relative  faults  of  various  windows,  with  respect 
to  both  material  and  position.  Experimental  investigation 
took  a  more  general  form. 

"Relative  to  the  total  complex  of  tenancy  problems,  I 
suggested  a  combined  investigation  of  the  respiratory,  meta- 
bolic, neuro-muscular,  visual,  and  psychological  effects  of  the 
gas  mask.  The  obvious  place  for  such  an  investigation  was 
the  Nutrition  Laboratory  of  the  Carnegie  Institution,  Boston. 
The  plan  met  the  cordial  approval  of  the  Chemical  Warfare 
Service.  In  spite  of  probable  interference  with  other  forms 
of  patriotic  service,  the  Director  of  the  Nutrition  Laboratory 
generously  gave  the  Investigation  the  hospitality  of  the  Lab- 
oratory, and  authorized  such  help  as  his  collaborators  and 
assistants  found  it  practicable  to  give.  Very  unfortunately, 
as  I  believe,  the  cooperative  investigation  failed  to  get  started. 

^  This  statement  of  Lieutenant  Commander  Dodge  is  supplemented  by  the  data 
in  section  15,  p.  141,  of  this  report. 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  I3i 

But  in  spite  of  many  difficulties  the  psychological  program 
was  initiated  and  carried  through  a  month  of  intensive  work. 

"Throughout  the  investigation  the  subject  was  myself. 
A  number  of  circumstances  made  this  somewhat  questionable 
procedure  necessary.  In  the  first  place,  I  needed  first  hand 
information  of  the  efi'ects  of  the  mask.  Moreover,  in  my  own 
case  there  was  available  abundant  data  on  the  normal  varia- 
bility of  my  responses.  So  I  could  evaluate  a  few  experiments 
on  myself  better  than  on  an  unknown  subject.  Finally,  the 
lack  of  available  assistance  made  it  impossible  to  begin  in 
any  other  way. 

"The  observations  were  of  two  sorts:  (i)  A  serial  record 
of  personal  impressions.  While  this  was  quite  inexact  and 
liable  to  distortion  by  personal  bias,  it  was  the  only  criterion 
in  matters  of  relative  comfort  and  discomfort.  Moreover, 
for  an  observer  who  is  trained  to  avoid  the  commoner  illusions 
of  self-observation,  the  method  will  give  considerable  insight 
into  the  presumptive  facts  over  a  wide  field.  (2)  In  addition 
to  these  personal  impressions,  quantitative  measurements 
were  made  of  a  group  of  selected  processes  that  seemed  likely 
to  be  significant  on  psycho-physiological  or  military  grounds. 

"When  the  investigation  began  there  was  no  available 
tradition  of  the  probable  effects  of  gas-mask  tenancy.  Based 
on  the  previous  studies  of  fatigue  and  of  the  psychological 
effects  of  alcohol,  I  selected  the  following  processes  for  meas- 
urement: 

1.  The  duration  of  the  pulse  and  respiration  cycles  during  rest, 
measured  work,  and  the  recovery  after  work.  Pulse  is  the  best- 
known  indicator  of  general  physiological  condition.  Our  pulse  rec- 
ords were  electrocardiograms. 

2.  Visual  acuity  as  measured  by  the  grating  test  object.  The 
relation  of  visual  acuity  to  military  efficiency  needs  no  comment. 

3.  Simple  reaction  of  the  hand  to  a  visual  signal.  This  was 
undoubtedly  too  simple  a  form  of  reaction,  but  no  suitable  military 
task  seemed  available  on  short  notice. 

4.  Eye  reactions  were  photographed  by  the  usual  technique. 
They  are  involved  in  every  adjustment  of  a  soldier  to  events  that 
he  can  see.  It  is  a  more  complicated  form  of  reaction  than  the 
simple  finger  reaction,  is  more  universally  practiced,  and  probably 
more  significant  in  its  changes. 


122  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

5.  The  velocity  of  eye -movement.  This  is  also  a  universal 
factor  in  adjustment  to  seen  events.  But  it  seemed  important  for 
other  reasons.  Dependent  on  the  nice  coordination  of  the  orbital 
muscles,  it  is  very  sensitive  to  disturbances  of  the  central  nervous 
system. 

6.  The  speed  of  the  oscillations  of  the  fingers.  Like  the  eye- 
movements,  it  is  a  kind  of  coordination  test  with  simple  technique, 
and  a  flat  practice  curve. 

7.  The  hand  dynamometer.  Frankly  this  was  a  makeshift. 
We  expected  to  discard  it  for  the  Martin  strength  tests  as  soon  as 
Lieutenant  Richmond  arrived.^ 

8.  Continuous  addition,  a  simple  form  of  continuous  work  test 
with  controlled  association. 

"The  most  consistent  and  largest  effect  of  gas-mask  ten- 
ancy was  decrease  of  visual  acuity,  an  average  of  20  per  cent. 
Addition  was  slowed  7  per  cent.  Eye-reactions  were  longer 
by  9  per  cent.  Eye-movements  were  7  per  cent,  slower.  In 
lesser  degree  the  finger  reactions,  finger  movements,  and 
dynamometer  strength  tests  were  adversely  affected,  three, 
two,  and  one  per  cent,  respectively. 

Inspection  of  the  curves  for  the  several  days  shows  a  pro- 
gressive adaptation  to  mask  conditions  that  corroborates 
personal  impression.  This  adaptation  was  both  general  and 
specific  and  seems  to  be  of  the  utmost  military  importance. 

"Of  vastly  greater  importance  than  the  fractional  falling 
off  in  efficiency  of  the  various  processes  was  the  effect  of  im- 
properly made  or  improperly  fitted  head  gear.  Within  one 
hour  I  had  reached  a  degree  of  discomfort  from  an  Ill-fitting 
head  gear  where  In  spite  of  experimental  Interest  In  the  task, 
in  spite  of  patriotic  sentiment,  and  all  the  scientific  pride  I 
could  muster,  I  could  stand  the  punishment  no  longer  and 
simply  took  the  mask  off.  The  extreme  military  Importance 
of  such  a  condition  of  mind  seems  clear.  A  properly  con- 
structed and  properly  fitted  mask  can  be  worn  almost  indef- 
initely, after  adaptation. 

"It  was  officially  reported  that  our  study  and  the  recom- 

^  This  officer  of  the  Sanitary  Corps,  psychological  service,  had  been  ordered  to 
report  to  Lieutenant  Commander  Dodge  for  duty  as  assistant  in  the  gas-mask  inves- 
tigation.   He  received  his  orders  too  late  to  be  of  service. 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  123 

mendations  that  grew  directly  out  of  it  were  of  substantial 
help  in  developing  the  modern  mask.  For  military  reasons 
I  have  deleted  all  reference  to  the  several  types  of  mask  and 
their  relative  advantages  as  measured  by  our  tests.  I  would 
record  in  this  formal  way  the  help  of  my  assistant,  Mr.  Vin- 
cent B.  Coffin,  and  the  helpful  counsel  of  Dr.  Walter  R.  Miles. 

"The  last  problem  that  was  taken  up  concerned  the  con- 
dition of  effective  anti-submarine  lookout  service.  This  was 
one  of  the  first  questions  that  was  suggested  in  the  spring  of 
1917.  But  it  was  not  until  the  fall  of  191 8  that  official  recog- 
nition of  its  importance  made  a  practicable  opening  for  tak- 
ing it  up  seriously.  When  Commander  Coffey,  U.  S.  N.,  was 
assigned  to  command  of  the  Eagle  Boats  he  requested  author- 
ization of  a  School  for  Lookouts  in  connection  with  the  train- 
ing of  the  officers  and  men  of  those  boats.  After  a  prelim- 
inary survey  a  satisfactory  plan  was  drawn  up  and  the  school 
was  authorized  by  the  Bureau  of  Navigation.  It  was  to 
facilitate  psychological  work  in  connection  with  this  School 
that  I  was  commissioned  in  the  Naval  Reserve  Force.  There 
followed  in  succession,  a  first-hand  analysis  of  the  tasks  of  a 
lookout,  authorization  of  a  plan  to  collect  the  most  approved 
naval  practices  of  our  own  and  foreign  forces,  organization 
to  investigate  aspects  of  the  task  on  which  naval  tradition 
and  scientific  doctrine  seemed  least  adequate,  the  elaboration 
of  a  course  of  Instruction  and  the  preparation  of  a  manual  on 
the  School  of  the  Lookout,  and  the  development  of  new  train- 
ing devices  and  apparatus.  All  these  processes  had  reached 
substantial  development  before  the  U-boat  warfare  suddenly 
stopped  at  the  signing  of  the  armistice,  and  I  was  released 
from  active  duty  to  resume  my  academic  work.  The  open 
publication  of  any  of  this  work  is  obviously  Impossible  for 
reasons  of  military  expediency. 

"By  request  of  members  of  the  National  Research  Council 
or  Naval  officers,  memoranda  were  prepared  on:  (i)  the  rela- 
tive advantages  of  binocular  and  monocular  glasses  for  look- 
outs; (2)  differences  in  the  vulnerability  of  different  kinds  of 
firing  reactions  to  emotional  disturbance;  (3)  an  examination 
for  the  admission  of  candidates  to  the  Pay  Officers'  School; 


124  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

(4)  the  training  of  college  men  for  the  Naval  Reserve  Force, 
and  other  topics." 

7.  Committee  on  Pedagogical  and  Psychological  Problems  of 
Military  Training  and  Discipline. — When  this  committee  was 
authorized  by  the  Council  of  the  Psychological  Association. 
Charles  H.  Judd  was  designated  as  chairman.  He  subse- 
quently resigned,  without  organizing  the  committee,  and  on 
request  of  the  Psychology  Committee  of  the  Research  Council, 
William  C.  Bagley  accepted  the  chairmanship.  He  secured 
the  cooperation  of  A.  Caswell  Ellis  and  C.  H.  Judd  as  members 
of  the  committee. 

In  March,  191 8,  Bagley  obtained  from  the  Carnegie  Foun- 
dation a  grant  of  five  hundred  dollars  for  the  study  of  condi- 
tions and  methods  of  military  training  in  typical  camps.  Tru- 
man L.  Kelley  and  William  R.  Harper  assisted  the  chairman 
in  the  conduct  of  this  initial  survey. 

Preliminary  reports  from  two  camps  indicated  the  desir- 
ability of  scientific  observation  and  practical  assistance  in 
connection  with  military  training.  It  was  thereupon  ar- 
ranged that  Major  Karl  T.  Waugh,  psychologist  at  Camp 
Gordon,  Georgia,  should  cooperate  with  the  committee  in 
an  attempt  to  improve  the  procedure  of  military  training  and 
discipline.  His  work  led  directly  to  practical  results,  since 
officers  of  the  line  appreciated  the  existence  of  psychological 
and  pedagogical  problems  and  the  value  of  expert  advice  for 
the  improvement  of  training. 

Unfortunately  the  work  of  this  committee  was  so  long  de- 
layed by  failure  to  achieve  satisfactory  cooperative  relations 
with  the  War  Department  and  to  obtain  adequate  financial 
support,  that  nothing  was  accomplished  aside  from  the  obser- 
vational work  in  the  above  mentioned  training  camps  and  the 
holding  of  two  conferences  which  proved  to  be  of  notable 
importance  to  the  work  of  physical  and  mental  reconstruction. 

By  request,  Major  M.  E.  Haggerty  has  prepared  an  ac- 
count of  these  conferences  as  a  part  of  his  summary  report  on 
psychological  service  in  reconstruction,  which  is  printed  below. 

"In  February,  191 8,  Major  Haggerty  reported  to  the  Sur- 
geon General  for  duty  and  was  assigned  to  the  Division  of 


OF   THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  125 

Special  Hospitals  and  Physical  Reconstruction  to  organize 
psychological  service  for  the  reeducation  of  disabled  soldiers. 

"At  his  request  W.  C.  Bagley  arranged  a  conference  on 
psychological  problems  of  reconstruction,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  National  Research  Council.  The  conference,  which 
was  held  March  11  to  16,  was  attended  by  W.  C.  Bagley,  J. 
W.  Baird,  B.  T.  Baldwin,  Mabel  R.  Fernald,  S.  I.  Franz,  F. 
N.  Freeman,  M.  E.  Haggerty,  E.  K.  Strong,  Jr.,  R.  M.  Yerkes, 
and  Helen  T.  Woolley. 

"To  this  conference  Major  Haggerty  presented  a  mem- 
orandum on  psychological  problems  in  the  reeducation  of  dis- 
abled men.  The  principal  problems  designated  were:  {a) 
the  problem  of  mental  attitude;  {h)  the  problem  of  functional 
reeducation;  (c)  problems  Involving  social,  vocational,  edu- 
cational adjustment;  and  {d)  general  problems  of  learning  in- 
volved in  educational  work  for  disabled  men.  These  groups 
of  problems  were  assigned  to  subcommittees,  with  the  under- 
standing that  reports  should  be  submitted  promptly.  The 
reports  proved  valuable  for  the  organization  and  develop- 
ment of  psychological  work  in  reconstruction. 

"For  further  discussion  of  the  problems  of  mental  attitude 
a  second  conference  was  called  by  Chairman  Bagley  at  the 
National  Research  Council  April  8  to  11.  The  members  of 
the  conference  were  W.  C.  Bagley,  J.  W.  Baird,  Ida  Cannon, 
B.  T.  Baldwin,  T.  H.  Haines,  M.  E.  Haggerty,  E.  G.  Brackett, 
and  Kendall  Emerson. 

"As  a  result  of  these  two  conferences  a  program  was  for- 
mulated and  presented  to  the  Surgeon  General.  This  led 
directly  to  the  authorization  by  the  Surgeon  General  of  the 
assignment  of  a  psychologist  to  the  Walter  Reed  General 
Hospital.  Major  B.  T.  Baldwin  reported  for  duty  at  that 
hospital  April  17,  1918. 

"This  was  the  beginning  of  psychological  service  in  mili- 
tary hospitals.  In  the  course  of  work  at  Walter  Reed  and 
other  General  and  Base  Hospitals  where  psychologists  have 
since  been  assigned,  the  original  program  formulated  in  the 
conferences  has  been  considerably  altered.  One  of  the  most 
important  developments  is  the  organization  of  the  psycho- 


126  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

logical  service  as  an  integral  part  of  the  educational  work  of 
the  hospital.  This  new  organization,  known  as  the  Educa- 
tional Service  of  Military  Hospitals,  includes  practically  all 
extra-medical  and  extra-surgical  activities  carried  on  in  the 
institution  for  the  benefit  of  patients.  In  many  Instances 
even  civilian  agencies,  such  as  the  Red  Cross,  work  through 
the  Education  Department. 

"As  now  definitely  organized,  the  Educational  Service 
includes  a  Psychological  and  Statistical  Division.  The  per- 
sonnel of  this  division  in  most  instances  consists  of  from  one 
to  four  commissioned  officers,  from  two  to  ten  enlisted  men, 
and  one  or  more  reconstruction  aides.  The  functions  of  the 
psychological  service  as  defined  by  the  Educational  Officer's 
Handbook  are  as  follows:  (i)  to  have  primary  responsibility 
for  psychological  and  educational  surveys  of  individual  pa- 
tients; (2)  to  cooperate  with  other  educational  and  medical 
oflftcers  in  the  study  of  special  learning  problems  encountered 
under  the  curative  workshop  schedule;  (3)  to  have  cooper- 
ative responsibility  for  all  measures  Intended  primarily  to 
direct  and  control  the  mental  attitude  of  patients;  (4)  to  have 
responsibility  for  all  statistical  studies  of  procedure  under  the 
curative  workshop  schedule;  (5)  to  have  cooperative  respon- 
sibility for  professional  training  and  advancement  of  educa- 
tional staff"  and  of  teachers  in  training. 

"There  are  at  present  engaged  In  this  service  in  forty- 
three  different  hospitals,  66  officers  of  the  Sanitary  Corps, 
72  enlisted  men  and  approximately  10  reconstruction  aides. 
Twenty-one  of  the  commissioned  officers  are  serving  as  Chief 
Educational  Officers. 

"Thus  far  the  greater  part  of  the  work  of  this  personnel 
has  been  the  Interviewing  of  patients  who  are  subjects  for  the 
educational  work  of  the  hospitals.  The  facts  obtained  in 
these  interviews  are  made  the  basis  of  all  educational  work 
prescribed  for  patients.  They  are  reported  on  the  Physical 
Reconstruction  Register  known  as  Form  58,  which  is  trans- 
mitted to  the  Office  of  the  Surgeon  General  on  discharge  of 
the  patient. 

"The  essential  features  of  this  register  are  as  follow:  {a) 


OF   THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  127 

diagnosis  of  patient's  ability  and  a  medical  officer's  prescrip- 
tion for  curative  work;  (b)  educational  and  occupational  his- 
tory of  the  patient;  (c)  psychological  examination  covering 
general  intelligence,  special  aptitudes,  mental  attitude  and 
ability  to  learn;  (d)  the  interviewer's  recommendation  as  to 
future  occupation  and  immediate  training;  (e)  assignments  to 
curative  work  and  data  on  the  progress  of  the  case. 

"The  program  for  practical  work  on  mental  attitudes  as 
formulated  in  conference  has  been  developed  and  modified  in 
accordance  with  the  following  scheme,  the  characteristics  of 
which  are  indicated  below  by  the  principal  lines  of  endeavor: 
(i)  development  of  objective  attitude,  (2)  development  of 
attitude  of  self-confidence,  (3)  development  of  the  attitude  of 
individual  responsibility,  (4)  development  of  the  attitude  of 
social  acceptability,  and  (5)  developing  the  rationalizing  atti- 
tude. 

"As  matters  have  developed,  the  most  important  single 
agency  for  the  direction  and  control  of  the  mental  attitude  of 
hospital  patients  has  been  the  Reconstruction  Aide  in  Occu- 
pational Therapy.  Approximately  one  thousand  of  these 
aides,  all  of  whom  are  women,  are  now  engaged  in  domestic 
and  overseas  hospitals. 

"Originally  the  occupational  aides  devoted  themselves 
to  teaching  handicrafts  and  the  work  began  with  what  seemed 
to  many  individuals  trivial  forms  of  occupation,  but  as  it 
progressed,  new  forms  have  been  developed  and  important 
changes  have  occurred.  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  chief 
groups  of  craft  work  now  taught  in  military  hospitals:  (i) 
work  with  textile  materials,  as,  for  example,  in  weaving,  knit- 
ting, crocheting,  netting,  knotting,  embroidery,  and  rug  mak- 
ing; (2)  reed,  cane  and  fiber  work,  as  in  basketry,  chair  caning, 
etc.;  (3)  woodworking,  as  in  carving,  toy  making,  joinery, 
etc.;  (4)  cardboard  construction  and  binding,  as  in  book- 
binding, novelty  box  work,  paper  folding  and  pasting,  etc.; 
(5)  work  in  applied  pattern;  (6)  metal  work;  (7)  work  in 
plastic  materials;  (8)  leather  work;  and  (9)  work  in  drawing, 
lettering  and  designing. 

"Reconstruction  aides  are  now  engaged,  in  addition  to 


128  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

the  teaching  of  crafts  work,  as  teachers  of  commercial  arith- 
metic and  technical  subjects.  The  chief  value  of  the  crafts 
work  in  military  hospitals  is  psychological.  The  other  sub- 
jects have  strictly  educational  values. 

"In  this  connection  there  should  be  mentioned  the  ser- 
vices of  psychologists  in  measuring  the  progress  of  improve- 
ment in  voluntary  movement  of  disabled  joints.  This  work, 
which  was  initiated  originally  at  the  Walter  Reed  General 
Hospital  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  late  Professor 
Baird,  has  been  introduced  in  several  other  military  hospitals. 

"A  recent  addition  to  the  personnel  of  the  Educational 
Service  is  the  medical  social  worker,  who  has  been  brought 
into  the  hospital  through  the  Psychological  Division  as  a 
direct  result  of  the  second  conference  called  by  Chairman  Bag- 
ley.  The  position  of  the  social  worker  is  now  definitely  estab- 
lished and  her  duties  defined  by  a  circular  letter  of  instruc- 
tions issued  by  the  Surgeon  General  on  January  i8,  1919. 
From  this  letter  the  following  sentences  are  quoted  to  indi- 
cate the  scope  of  her  service:  'It  is  thought  that  Reconstruc- 
tion Aides  operating  as  medical  social  workers  may  be  avail- 
able: (i)  in  assisting  to  coordinate  the  various  educational 
and  related  activities  within  the  hospital  so  that  they  may 
serve  a  larger  number  of  patients  more  efficiently;  (2)  by 
bringing  to  the  attention  of  outside  agencies,  such  as  the  Home 
Service  of  the  Red  Cross,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  Knights  of 
Columbus,  the  Jewish  Welfare  Association,  the  Federal  Board, 
etc.,  the  cases  of  soldiers  who  are  in  need  of  the  types  of  ser- 
vice which  these  agencies  are  prepared  to  render;  (3)  in  assist- 
ing medical  officers  as  desired  to  secure  such  personal  and 
social  data  about  the  patient  as  will  assist  in  accurate  diag- 
nosis; and  (4)  in  rendering  such  other  services  as  may  be 
assigned  to  them  .  .  .  '" 

8.  Committee  on  Psychological  Problems  of  Incapacity^  in- 
cluding those  of  Shell-shock  and  Reeducation. — The  Council 
of  the  American  Psychological  Association  originally  author- 
ized this  committee  under  the  chairmanship  of  S.  I.  Franz, 
and  also  a  Committee  on  "Psychological  problems  of  voca- 
tional characteristics  and  vocational  advice"  with  J.  B.  Wat- 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  129 

son  as  chairman.  By  request  of  the  chairmen,  these  two 
committees  were  combined  under  the  above  title  and  the  fol- 
lowing membership  was  arranged:  K.  S.  Lashley,  J.  B.  Wat- 
son, and  S.  I.  Franz,  chairman. 

The  activities  of  the  committee  continued  to  August  4, 
1918,  when  it  was  reorganized  with  the  same  membership  as 
a  subcommittee  on  "Problems  of  Reeducation." 

Assistance  was  afforded  the  War  Department  by  this  com- 
mittee in  the  following  directions:  {a)  Systematic  instruction 
of  neuro-psychiatric  groups  in  the  work  of  rehabilitation  by 
Franz  at  St.  Elizabeths  Hospital;  {h)  the  development  and 
application  of  methods  for  the  reeducation  of  aphasics  and 
paralytics  (report  on  this  subject  Is  being  prepared  for  publi- 
cation by  Franz);  {c)  conduct  of  investigations  on  the  effect 
of  Injury  to  the  brain,  with  special  reference  to  the  relation  of 
experiments  on  monkeys  to  cerebral  war  injuries;  {d)  arrange- 
ment with  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Army  for  the  prep- 
aration of  motion  pictures  of  animal  and  human  subjects  to 
illustrate  varieties  of  Incapacity;  {e)  preparation  of  a  program 
for  reconstructional  experimentation  which  was  subsequently 
presented  to  the  Chief  of  the  Division  of  Special  Hospitals, 
Office  of  the  Surgeon  General;  (/)  Cooperation  with  Major 
Haggerty  of  the  Division  of  Special  Hospitals  in  the  formula- 
tion of  plans  and  the  preparation  of  methods  for  psychologi- 
cal service  in  reeducation;  {g)  Lashley  of  the  committee  ex- 
tended Franz's  reeducational  studies  to  crippled  children  and 
also  conducted  Investigations  on  animal  reeducation  after 
cerebral  extirpation  and  the  reacquisltion  of  muscular  con- 
trol after  cerebral  lesions. 

No  one  of  the  above  lines  of  service  or  research  can  be 
adequately  reported  here,  but  it  is  understood  that  suitable 
accounts  of  the  work  will  be  published  In  scientific  periodicals. 

9.  Committee  on  Problems  of  Emotional  Stability ^  Fear  and 
Self-control. — As  originally  organized  this  committee  of  the 
American  Psychological  Association  consisted  of  W.  B.  Can- 
non, G.  S.  Hall,  J.  B.  Morgan,  J.  F.  Shepard,  and  R.  S.  Wood- 
worth,  chairman.  In  August,  1918,  It  was  reorganized  as  the 
subcommittee  on  problems  of  emotional  fitness  with  the  fol- 


ISO  REPORT  OF   THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

lowing  membership:  E.  G.  Boring,  H.  L.  HoUingworth,  and 
R.  S.  Woodworth,  chairman.  Important  assistance  was  ren- 
dered the  committee  by  Captain  A.  T.  Poffenberger,  Major 
J.  W.  Hayes,  and  Dr.  Josephine  Curtis  Foster. 

This  committee  set  itself  the  peculiarly  difficult  task  of 
devising  means  which  should  aid  in  the  prompt  discovery  and 
segregation  of  recruits  whose  emotional  characteristics  indi- 
cated unfitness  for  military  service.  A  Personal  Data  Ques- 
tionary  was  devised.  Subjects,  examined  in  large  groups, 
were  required  to  answer  by  "yes"  or  "no"  a  series  of  per- 
sonal questions  intended  to  disclose  psychopathic  or  neuro- 
pathic tendencies  and  such  emotional  instability  as  might  re- 
sult in  breakdown  under  the  strain  of  warfare.  Men  answer- 
ing a  considerable  number  of  these  questions  in  the  atypical 
way  were  to  be  referred  for  intensive  neuro-psychiatric  ex- 
amination. No  single  unusual  answer  to  the  questionary 
was  to  be  interpreted  as  indicative  of  psychoneurosis  or  neu- 
rosis, since  each  manifestation  inquired  about  is  reported  by  an 
appreciable  proportion  of  presumably  normal  individuals. 
But  the  larger  the  number  of  such  manifestations  the  more 
probable  would  it  be  that  the  individual  has  serious  neurotic 
tendencies. 

The  correctness  of  this  initial  assumption  was  established 
by  careful  trial  of  the  preliminary  form  of  the  questionary. 
One  hundred  and  sixteen  questions  of  the  original  list  sur- 
vived a  thoroughgoing  inquiry  by  a  joint  conference  of  psy- 
chiatrists and  psychologists  who  passed  on  the  statistical 
validity  and  genuine  practicability  and  value  of  each  question 
as  shown  in  the  preliminary  trial  on  one  thousand  men  at 
Camp  Upton  and  on  various  groups  of  psychoneurotic  and 
psychotic  subjects.  For  example,  any  question  was  elimi- 
nated on  the  ground  of  doubtful  significance  which  failed  to 
separate  individuals  into  a  large  majority,  presumably  of 
normals,  and  a  small  minority  of  atypicals,  insofar  as  the  char- 
acteristic under  consideration  was  concerned.  Judged  by 
this  criterion  the  following  questions  were  among  those  found 
significant:  Do  you  feel  sad  or  low-spirited  most  of  the  time? 
Are  you  ever  bothered  with  the  feeling  that  people  are  read- 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  131 

ing  your  thoughts?  Did  you  ever  walk  in  your  sleep?  And 
the  following  were  for  like  reason  rejected:  As  a  child,  did 
you  have  dreams  that  frightened  you?  Have  you  ever  been 
engaged  to  a  girl?  Do  you  like  to  be  the  leader  in  whatever 
is  going  on  ? 

The  conference  of  psychiatrists  and  psychologists,  at 
which  the  questionary  was  revised,  authorized  the  printing 
of  twelve  thousand  copies  which  were  to  have  been  placed  in 
immediate  use  at  several  camps.  Cancellation  of  drafts  and 
the  termination  of  psychological  service  in  the  field  prevented 
the  complete  execution  of  this  plan.  Important  results  were 
obtained  from  the  examination  of  five  hundred  negro  re- 
cruits, from  about  five  hundred  soldiers  invalided  home  from 
overseas  for  nervous  disturbances  and  examined  at  General 
Hospital  number  30,  and  from  neuro-circulatory  asthenics  at 
Camp  Upton,  as  well  as  from  normal  subjects. 

Work  on  the  Personal  Data  Questionary  will  continue,  at 
first  in  the  direction  of  determination  of  norms,  since  the 
method  undoubtedly  possesses  considerable  value  as  a  means 
of  discovering  and  segregating  subjects  who  should  be  given 
special  neuro-psychiatric  examinations.  The  chairman  of  the 
subcommittee,  who  has  been  chiefly  responsible  for  this  work, 
will  prepare  an  adequate  account  of  the  method  and  its  re- 
sults for  publication  in  a  suitable  periodical. 

10.  Committee  on  "Propaganda  Behind  the  German  Lines  " 
— This  subcommittee,  consisting  of  Scott  and  Angell,  chair- 
man, was  appointed  in  December,  1917,  by  the  Psychology 
Committee  of  the  Research  Council  on  motion  of  Dodge. 
This  action  followed  urgent  requests  of  Hall  of  the  Psychology 
Committee  that  psychological  assistance  be  rendered  the 
War  Department  in  connection  with  problems  of  military 
and  civilian  morale. 

Prior  arrangements  of  the  War  Department  rendered  it 
impossible  for  the  subcommittee  to  accomplish  anything  in 
the  direction  originally  indicated  by  the  committee's  dis- 
cussion of  needs,  but  subsequently  members  of  the  Psychology 
Committee  were  able  to  focus  the  attention  of  various  officers 
of  the  General  Staff"  on  psychological  aspects  of  the  morale 
problem. 


132  REPORT  OF   THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

The  first  noteworthy  event  in  the  control  of  militar/ 
morale  traceable  indirectly  to  the  influence  of  psychology  in 
the  army,  was  the  preparation  in  March,  1918,  by  Colonel 
E.  L.  Munson,  of  the  Medical  Corps,  of  a  memorandum  en- 
titled "Need  for  a  systematic  plan  for  the  psychological 
stimulation  of  troops  in  promoting  fighting  efficiency."  This 
memorandum,  which  was  prepared  for  the  Surgeon  General, 
was  referred  to  the  Division  of  Psychology,  and  after  endorse- 
ment by  that  Division  forwarded  to  the  General  Staff  for 
consideration. 

While  Colonel  Munson's  memorandum  was  under  advise- 
ment, representatives  of  the  Psychology  Committee  were 
able  to  further  the  Interests  of  psychological  morale  through 
numerous  conferences  with  Interested  army  officers  and 
through  the  organizing  at  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  F.  H.  Keppel, 
Third  Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  of  two  group  conferences 
for  the  discussion  of  the  morale  problem  and  of  ways  of  meet- 
ing the  military  need  for  enhanced  morale. 

These  conferences  were  followed  by  favorable  action  with 
reference  to  Colonel  Munson's  recommendations,  and  there 
was  ultimately  established  in  the  War  Department  the  Morale 
Branch  of  the  General  Staff  with  Brigadier  General  E.  L. 
Munson  in  charge. 

Thus  Indirectly  the  Psychology  Committee  succeeded  In 
stimulating  military  interest  and  in  acquainting  the  War  De- 
partment with  morale  needs  to  a  degree  which  shortly  led  to 
most  important  official  action. 

In  August,  191 8,  the  Psychology  Committee  voted  to 
organize  a  subcommittee  on  Morale  under  the  chairmanship 
of  G.  Stanley  Hall.  Unfortunately  he  was  unable  to  assume 
this  responsibility  and  the  committee  was  never  appointed. 

A  considerable  number  of  men  trained  in  military  psychol- 
ogy were  also  trained  at  the  Medical  Department  Training 
Camp,  Fort  Oglethorpe,  Georgia,  for  practical  work  in  mili- 
tary morale.  Conspicuously  important  among  the  officers 
engaged  in  this  work  were  Major  William  S.  Foster,  Captain 
Elliot  P.  Frost,  and  Lieutenant  H.  D.  Fryer.  At  various 
times  as  many  as  twenty-five  trained  psychologists  were  en- 


OF   THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  133 

gaged  In  this  type  of  work.  Still  later  several  psychologists 
were  placed  on  duty  with  the  Morale  Branch  of  the  General 
Staff.  Major  Foster  and  Captain  Frost  rendered  important 
service  in  this  connection  by  organizing  morale  work  in  vari- 
ous camps.  Major  Foster  also  directed  the  study  of  mili- 
tary offences  from  the  psychological  standpoint,  with  a  view 
to  discovering  their  chief  causes  In  order  that  appropriate 
steps  might  be  taken  by  the  War  Department  to  eliminate 
or  control  them. 

Morale  is  one  of  the  subjects  in  which  several  members  of 
the  Psychology  Committee,  notably  Hall  and  Dodge,  were 
keenly  interested  from  the  onset  of  the  military  emergency. 
It  is  also  a  field  of  service  in  which  the  direct  outcome  of 
committee  action  Is  seemingly  of  trivial  Importance.  Indi- 
rectly, however,  the  Committee  through  the  interest  aroused 
in  War  Department  officials  has  achieved  important  service. 

II.  Committee  on  Acoustic  Problems  of  Military  Impor- 
tance, consisting  of  R.  M.  Ogden,  C.  A.  Ruckmich,  Daniel 
Starch,  Raymond  Dodge,  and  C.  E.  Seashore,  chairman,  was 
not  called  upon  to  perform  war  work  through  committee  or- 
ganization.    The  chairman  reports  as  follows: 

"Immediately  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  the  chair- 
man Interviewed  the  officers  in  charge  of  the  Training  School 
for  Listeners  at  New  London  and  observed  the  types  of  acous- 
tic instruments  In  use,  the  methods  of  using  these  Instruments 
in  locating  submarines,  and  the  method  of  selecting  listeners 
for  the  training  school.  On  the  basis  of  these  observations, 
a  report  was  made  to  the  Psychology  Committee  embodying 
suggestions  for  improving  certain  Instruments  then  In  use  and 
for  modifying  methods  and  means  of  selecting  listeners.  The 
chairman  later  presented,  through  the  Psychology  Committee, 
a  report  upon  preliminary  experiments  for  the  various  methods 
that  had  been  recommended  for  use  in  the  selecting  of  lis- 
teners and  submitted  instruments  which  have  been  adapted 
for  this  service.  One  of  these  Instruments  was  an  audiometer 
designed  in  cooperation  with  Professor  A.  H.  Ford.  Two  re- 
search assistants,  Mr.  H.  M.  Halverson  and  Mr.  C.  C.  Bunch, 
were  employed  in  the  laboratory  of  the  chairman  for  the  dura- 


134  REPORT  OF   THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

tion  of  the  war,   devoting  their  attention   largely  to  these 
problems. 

''Perhaps  the  most  significant  contribution  is  an  instru- 
ment and  a  method  of  measuring  acuity  of  hearing  at  all 
pitch  levels  very  quickly  and  accurately.  This  is  a  problem 
on  which  Mr.  Bunch  was  working  in  cooperation  with  the 
chairman,  Dr.  L.  W.  Dean,  and  Professor  A.  H.  Ford.  A 
report  on  this  instrument  was  transmitted  by  the  chairman 
of  the  Psychology  Committee  to  the  Surgeon  General  of  the 
Army. 

"Another  problem  undertaken  in  cooperation  with  Pro- 
fessor Ford,  in  charge  of  the  school  for  radio-telegraphers,  was 
the  development  of  a  series  of  tests  to  diagnose  fitness  for  the 
radio  service  before  the  training  of  the  cadet  was  undertaken. 
A  report  showing  the  operation  of  these  tests  was  submitted 
to  the  Psychology  Committee. 

"The  chairman  has  worked  in  close  cooperation  with  Pro- 
fessor G.  W.  Stewart,  who  has  presented  a  report  to  the  Re- 
search Council  on  the  selection  of  listeners  for  the  detection 
of  aeroplanes." 

12.  Committee  on  Tests  for  Deception. — John  F.  Shepard, 
chairman,  assisted  by  H.  W.  Crane  and  Mabel  Goudge.  This 
subcommittee  was  appointed  to  make  inquiry  concerning  the 
reliability  and  practicability  of  certain  procedures  proposed 
by  William  M.  Marston  for  the  detection  of  deception. 

By  invitation  of  the  chairman,  Marston  presented  to  the 
Psychology  Committee  a  summary  report  on  his  methods  and 
the  results  obtained  in  laboratory  experiments.  The  pur- 
pose of  his  report  appears  in  the  initial  sentence:  "I  respect- 
fully submit  that  three  psycho-physiological  deception  tests 
(association-reaction,  breathing,  and  blood  pressure)  are  of 
sufficient  proven  value  to  warrant  practical  application." 

In  response  to  request  by  Marston  that  the  Committee 
arrange  for  adequate  trial  of  his  methods,  either  by  the  War 
Department  or  by  the  Department  of  Justice,  he  was  asked 
to  make  application  of  his  methods  to  a  number  of  cases  of 
actual  crime,  and  to  report  the  results  to  the  Committee. 
This  was  promptly  done,  with  positive  results,  and  the  Com- 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  135 

mittee  thereupon  appointed  a  subcommittee  consisting  of 
Angell  and  Yerkes  to  attempt  to  make  provision  for  the  ten- 
tative application  of  the  Marston  procedures  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Military  Intelligence. 

Initial  efforts  to  effect  suitable  arrangements  through  the 
War  Department  failed.  Thereupon  attention  was  directed 
to  the  Department  of  Justice,  but  early  favorable  response 
failed  to  lead  to  definite  arrangements. 

Finally  Marston  was  commissioned  in  the  Sanitary  Corps 
for  psychological  service  and  while  in  training  at  Camp  Green- 
leaf,  Georgia,  was  able  still  further  to  supplement  his  earlier 
laboratory  and  court  observations.  The  method  involves 
the  measurement  of  blood  pressure  during  systematic  cross 
examining.  Ordinarily  the  Tycos  sphygmometer  is  used  and 
accurate  record  Is  kept  of  the  subject's  verbal  responses  so 
that  variations  In  blood  pressure  as  read  at  Intervals  or  as 
recorded  continuously  may  be  studied  in  relation  to  the 
verbal  responses. 

The  percentage  of  correct  judgments,  with  reference  to 
guilt  or  innocence,  reported  by  Marston  is  extremely  high. 
Thus  in  the  case  of  the  Greenleaf  experiments,  of  thirty-five 
men  tested,  nineteen  without  knowledge  of  the  examiner  had 
chosen  to  steal,  while  sixteen  were  innocent  and  told  the 
truth  under  cross  examination.  On  the  basis  of  blood  pres- 
sure curves,  Marston  made  thirty-four  correct  judgments,  a 
percentage  of  97.1.  These  findings  are  supported  by  those 
of  previous  carefully  controlled  laboratory  experiments  and 
of  several  Instances  of  actual  crime. 

The  subcommittee  appointed  to  thoroughly  Investigate 
the  Marston  procedures  has  not  been  able  to  complete  Its 
task  and  no  report  Is  available  for  summary  or  publication. 

The  deception  tests,  because  of  their  applicational  his- 
tory, did  not  command  the  confidence  of  all  members  of  the 
Psychology  Committee.  To  this  fact  may  be  attributed  the 
conservative  position  taken,  which  Involved  first  the  desire 
for  trial  under  the  conditions  of  real  life,  as  contrasted  with 
the  experimental  laboratory  setting,  and  finally,  the  recom- 
mendation of  tentative  trial  by  the  Government.     It  Is  ex- 


13^  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

tremely  regrettable  that  such  trial  could  not  have  been  made, 
for  the  high  percentage  of  correct  judgments  reported  by 
Marston  strongly  suggests  the  probability  of  the  practical 
serviceableness  of  blood  pressure  tests  in  connection  with 
trial  for  military  offence, 

13.  Committee  on  Adaptation  of  Psychological  Instruction 
to  Military  Educational  Needs. — Late  in  August,  191 8,  the 
Chairman  of  the  Psychology  Committee  received  information 
from  the  Chairman  of  the  Section  on  Relations  with  Educa- 
tional Institutions  that  psychology  would  be  listed  as  an 
"allied  subject"  of  instruction  in  the  Students'  Army  Train- 
ing Corps.  This  information  carried  with  it  the  suggestion 
that  a  training  course  in  psychology  suitable  for  use  in  the 
S.  A.  T.  C.  be  prepared. 

Following  a  conference  on  this  subject,  attended  by  mem- 
bers of  the  Committee  on  Education  and  Special  Training  of 
the  War  Department,  members  of  the  Psychology  Committee 
of  the  National  Research  Council,  and  representatives  of  the 
American  Psychological  Association,  the  Chairman  of  the 
Psychology  Committee  appointed  the  following  subcommittee 
to  prepare  appropriate  methods  for  the  Committee  on  Edu- 
cation and  Special  Training:  J.  W.  Baird,  E.  K.  Strong,  Jr., 
L.  M.  Terman,  E.  L.  Thorndike,  G.  M.  Whipple,  and  Ray- 
mond Dodge,  chairman. 

This  committee  faced  the  task  of  arranging  immediately 
for  a  training  course  in  psychology  which  should  conform  to 
the  general  policies  of  the  War  Department  committee. 

Members  of  this  subcommittee  were  promptly  summoned 
to  Washington  for  conference  and  it  was  decided  to  recom- 
mend the  following  three  courses:  I.  The  study  of  human  ac- 
tion; II.  Educational  psychology;  III.  The  psychology  of 
reason.  Each  course  was  planned  for  a  term  of  twelve  weeks 
with  three  recitations  and  six  hours  of  study  per  week. 

The  course  entitled  the  "Study  of  human  action"  was 
carefully  planned  by  the  Committee  in  accordance  with  the 
experience  and  opinions  concerning  military  needs  set  forth 
below. 

It  is   believed  that  the  psychological  principles  which 


(( 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  137 

underlie  established  military  practice  as  well  as  the  principles 
on  which  the  recent  mental  examinations  and  tests  are  based, 
should  be  brought  together  In  a  course  in  the  study  of  human 
action  for  the  S.  A.  T.  C.  and  made  available  for  all  pros- 
pective officers  Including  those  who  will  spend  only  one  quar- 
ter year  in  college.     That  is  the  Idea  of  Course  I. 

"It  Is  consequently  recommended  that  the  elementary 
course  in  *the  study  of  human  action'  be  given  in  institutions 
which  have  the  necessary  equipment,  omitting  as  far  as  pos- 
sible all  questions  of  a  purely  speculative  or  theoretical  nature 
and  concentrating  on  the  relevant  questions  of  applied  psy- 
chology. 

"While  it  Is  desired  to  leave  each  instructor  the  greatest 
freedom  for  personal  initiative,  it  is  recommended  that  read- 
ing assignments,  formal  reports,  and  recitation  discussions 
be  used  rather  than  lectures,  and  that  wherever  practicable 
concrete  military  problems  be  used  for  Illustration. 

"It  is  further  recommended  that  in  contrast  with  the 
common  plan  of  elementary  courses  in  psychology,  the  emo- 
tions and  the  will  be  emphasized  Instead  of  the  Intellectual 
processes,  and  that  the  course  be  applied  psychology  rather 
than  systematic. 

"The  subjects  which  are  regarded  as  essential  to  such  an 
elementary  course  in  human  action  may  be  outlined  under 
six  sections. 

1.  The  general  characteristics  of  personal  action  and  the  con- 

ditions of  effective  reaction  to  new  situations. 

2.  Individual  differences  and  their  military  exploitation. 

3.  The  learning  process.     General  characteristics  of  habit  for- 

mation.    Plasticity.     Fluctuation.     Improvement  and 
its  limits.     Fatigue. 

4.  Motivation  and  morale. 

5.  Principles  of  leadership. 

6.  The   sources   and   critical   estimate   of  information.     The 

psychology  of  observation  and  report." 
An  arrangement  was  further  made  that  materials  for  a 
fundamental  course  In  human  action  as  outlined  above  be 
prepared  and  made  available  for  teachers  in  the  Students' 


138  REPORT  OF   THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

Army  Training  Corps  as  promptly  as  possible.  The  sections 
of  this  course  were  assigned  as  follows:  Section  i,  Dodge; 
Section  2,  Thorndike,  Terman,  and  Strong;  Section  3,  Strong, 
Section  4,  Hall;  Section  5,  Lindley;  Section  6,  Whipple.  The 
editor  of  the  Psychological  Bulletin  agreed  to  publish  this 
text-book  material.  Sections  i,  2,  and  6  have  already  ap- 
peared. It  is  planned  to  complete  the  preparation  of  this 
material  and,  if  the  demand  justifies  it,  to  reprint  the  entire 
course  as  a  volume. 

The  plans  and  materials  for  this  course  represent  in  a  most 
interesting  and  valuable  way  the  results  of  contact  with  psy- 
chological military  problems  and  the  attempt  of  psycholo- 
gists to  adapt  themselves  to  a  new  and  unexpected  practical 
demand. 

14.  Psychological  Service  Rendered  the  Division  of  Military 
Intelligence. — Request  for  psychological  assistance  in  the  se- 
lection and  training  of  scouts  and  observers  was  received  both 
by  the  Division  of  Psychology  and  also  by  Whipple  of  the 
Psychology  Committee  from  the  Chief  Intelligence  Officer  of 
an  Army  Division.  In  response  to  this  request,  advice  and 
definite  suggestions  concerning  methods  were  offered  by  Whip- 
ple, and  the  chairman  of  the  Psychology  Committee  conferred 
with  the  intelligence  officers  of  the  War  Department  in  order 
to  formulate  the  chief  psychological  problems  of  the  Division 
and  arrange  for  their  solution. 

The  Division  of  Military  Intelligence  later  requested  the 
assignment  of  a  psychologist,  in  the  military  service,  to  pre- 
pare training  tests  to  be  used  in  the  schools  for  intelligence 
officers.  Major  Watson  and  Captain  Bentley  were  assigned 
to  the  task.  They  jointly  prepared  special  tests  which  have 
been  fully  described  in  a  chapter  of  the  "Combat  Intelligence 
Manual"  of  the  War  Department. 

The  materials  of  this  chapter,  including  the  tests,  were 
selected  and  arranged  for  general  instruction,  special  training, 
and  as  a  basis  for  selection.  The  purpose  of  the  several  exer- 
cises presented  is  to  test  and  develop  visual,  aural,  and  men- 
tal acuity. 

The  first  few  paragraphs  of  this  chapter  will  serve  to  indl- 


OF   TEE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  139 

cate  both  the  scope  and  the  purpose  of  the  psychological 
labors  undertaken  by  Watson  and  Bentley. 

"An  important  function  of  a  school  of  Military  Intelli- 
gence is  the  training  of  the  men  to  be  generally  alert  and  wide 
awake;  to  teach  them  to  use  their  brains  as  well  as  their  eyes 
and  ears;  and  finally  to  show  them  that,  even  when  they  are 
doing  their  very  best,  they  are  liable  to  certain  errors  in  ob- 
servation, which  arise  partly  through  their  own  eagerness 
and  expectation,  and  partly  through  slight  defects  in  the 
sense  organs  themselves.  The  present  simple  course  of  train- 
ing is  designed  to  bring  out  these  points  and  to  give  both 
training  in  the  use  of  the  eye  and  the  ear,  and  in  the  noting 
and  correct  reporting  of  small  details  in  observation.  The 
exercises  are  all  simple  to  give  and  they  require  neither  ex- 
tensive equipment  nor  a  burdensome  amount  of  work  on  the 
part  of  the  group  under  instruction.  The  most  important 
thing  which  can  be  said  to  the  instructor  is  that  he  should 
thoroughly  familiarize  himself  with  such  exercises  before  he 
attempts  to  instruct  the  group.  The  work  can  then  be  carried 
out  in  a  dignified  and  impressive  way.  It  is  safe  to  predict 
that  if  the  men  are  taken  through  all  of  the  exercises  in  any- 
thing like  a  satisfactory  way  they  will  come  out  with  a  very 
much  quickened  ability  to  observe  and  a  very  much  better 
estimate  of  their  own  abilities  and  weaknesses.  They  should 
be  then  in  a  much  better  frame  of  mind  for  receiving  their 
more  practical  field  instructions. 

"The  opening  pages  are  devoted  to  some  of  the  uses  and 
peculiarities  of  vision.  The  intelligence  scout  or  observer  on 
duty  at  night  depends  to  a  great  extent  upon  vision.  It 
seems  only  fair  to  acquaint  him  with  some  of  the  more  com- 
mon functions  of  the  eye. 

"After  this  lecture  has  been  given  the  instructor  may  pro- 
ceed as  rapidly  as  he  can  with  Training  Tests  A,  B,  C,  and  D, 
which  are  designed  both  to  test  general  alertness  and  to  train 
the  men  to  make  close  and  detailed  observations. 

"Training  Test  E  is  designed  to  discover  and  to  improve 
the  men's  ability  to  find  their  way  and  to  keep  their  bearings 
in  the  dark. 


I40  REPORT  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

"Training  Test  F  deals  with  hearing.  It  is  designed  to 
train  the  men  to  detect  and  localize  faint  sounds  and  to  guard 
them  against  purely  imaginary  sounds." 

The  several  tests  referred  to  above  deserve  characteriza- 
tion: 

Test  for  A  is  preliminary  training  in  noting  and  naming 
various  combinations  of  colored  lights.  It  involves  the  use 
of  a  series  of  lamps  in  connection  with  a  keyboard.  The 
chief  purposes  of  the  test  are  to  cultivate  alertness,  accuracy, 
and  speed  in  reporting  observations;  to  test  and  improve  im- 
mediate memory  and  in  general  those  functions  which  are 
most  important  in  correctly  observing  and  reporting  the  com- 
binations of  enemy  rocket  signals. 

Test  B  is  an  adapted  form  of  the  army  Picture  Completion 
test.  It  Is  presented  by  means  of  lantern  slides  and  its  pur- 
pose is  to  increase  the  rapidity  with  which  men  notice  details 
and  detect  obscure  objects. 

Test  C  is  an  adaptation  of  the  army  analogies  or  logical 
relations  test.  It  also  is  presented  by  means  of  lantern 
slides  and  its  chief  purpose  is  to  increase  mental  alertness. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  supposed  to  improve  ability  to  think 
and  to  draw  correct  inferences. 

Test  D  deals  with  estimates  of  numbers.  Groups  of  men 
are  presented  by  means  of  lantern  slides  and  the  subject  is 
required  to  estimate  quickly  the  number  of  individuals  when 
position,  attitude,  and  background  are  varied. 

Test  E  has  to  do  with  orientation.  It  is  at  once  a  measure 
of  the  man's  ability,  and  a  means  of  training  him  to  hold  his 
directions  and  to  find  his  way  under  varied  conditions. 

Test  F  is  planned  as  a  measure  of  ability  to  detect  and 
localize  sounds  (whistle  and  whisper).  It  is  used  also  to 
train  men  to  detect  and  localize  sounds  in  the  dark. 

The  services  of  Watson  and  Bentley  were  much  appre- 
ciated by  the  Division,  and  the  tests  constitute  an  interesting 
contribution  to  the  practical  literature  on  the  training  of 
intelligence  officers.  It  is  probable  also  that  the  test  materials 
will  prove  convenient  and  of  value  in  various  other  types  of 
situation. 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  141 

An  additional  psychological  contribution  to  the  training 
of  intelligence  officers  was  made  by  Carl  Rahn,  wholly  inde- 
pendently of  the  Psychology  Committee.  He  prepared  a 
series  of  lectures  and  exercises  for  the  men  in  the  Intelligence 
Section  at  Camp  Grant.  Each  of  the  lessons  included  (i) 
the  statement  of  some  important  psychological  principle;  (2) 
an  illustration  to  clinch  the  point;  (3)  a  statement  of  appli- 
cability to  scout  and  patrol;  and  (4)  an  exercise  based  upon 
the  practical  work  of  the  detail.  The  officers  in  charge  of 
this  course  at  Camp  Grant  were  of  the  opinion  that  the  psy- 
chological work  could  be  incorporated  largely  in  the  training 
course  for  men  in  the  Intelligence  Service. 

The  Rahn  materials  were  transmitted  to  the  Psychology 
Committee  of  the  Research  Council  through  James  R.  Angell 
and  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  forwarded  them  to  Wat- 
son, who  at  the  time  was  in  the  service  of  the  Division  of 
Military  Intelligence. 

15.  Psychological  Assistajice  to  the  Chemical  Warfare  Ser- 
vice.— Dodge,  Baird,  and  Dunlap  assisted  the  Chemical  War- 
fare Service  by  a  special  investigation  of  problems  referred 
by  that  service  and  the  preparation  of  reports  and  recom- 
mendations. 

This  work  was  initiated  in  response  to  an  appeal  from  an 
officer  of  the  Chemical  Warfare  Service  for  assistance  with 
certain  psychological  problems  connected  with  the  tenancy 
of  the  gas  mask.  The  chairman  of  the  Psychology  Commit- 
tee referred  the  matter  to  the  subcommittee  on  Visual  Proba- 
lems.  Dodge,  of  that  committee,  after  preliminary  analysis 
of  the  situation,  conducted  certain  special  investigations  and 
submitted  reports,  the  chief  recomm.endations  of  which  have 
been  embodied  in  the  latest  form  of  mask.  The  following 
Introductory  statements  indicate  the  important  character- 
istics of  the  practical  situation  and  the  scope  of  Dodge's  In- 
quiry:^ 

"Except  for  a  few  sporadic  experiments,  the  mental  and 
neuro-muscular  effects  of  wearing  a  gas  mask  have  not  been 
investigated.     We  know  neither  the  effects  of  the  mask  as  a 

^  See  also  Dodge's  account  of  the  gas  mask  inquiry,  p.  1 20,  above. 


142  REPORT  OF   THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

whole  nor  the  effects  of  its  several  parts.  There  are  conse- 
quently no  traditions  to  guide  us  either  in  the  selection  of 
the  processes  that  are  likely  to  be  most  affected,  or  in  the 
order  of  the  experiments.  Even  military  traditions  are  rela- 
tively scant.  There  are  no  standard  experiments  that  corre- 
spond to  definite  military  tasks.  There  is  no  way  of  tell- 
ing whether  a  given  experimental  disturbance  is  or  is  not  of 
military  consequence.  Furthermore,  there  are  no  standard 
masks,  fittings,  or  harness.  There  is  no  adequate  analysis 
of  the  psychological  and  physiological  problems  that  are  in- 
volved. 

"A  serial  investigation  of  the  neural  and  mental  effects  of 
each  part  of  the  various  masks  now  in  use,  or  proposed  for 
use,  would  be  an  investigation  of  some  magnitude.  It  is 
doubtful  if  there  are  any  available  methods  by  which  it  could 
be  satisfactorily  completed.  At  present  such  an  investiga- 
tion is  apparently  particularly  impracticable.  The  situa- 
tion demands  immediate  results,  not  exhaustive  programs. 
We  lack  available  laboratory  facilities  and  personnel  as 
well  as  time  and  techniques. 

"In  view  of  these  considerations,  I  proposed  and  have 
initiated  an  investigation  consisting  of  two  parts,  calculated 
to  give  the  most  important  information  in  the  least  possible 
time. 

"Part  I.  A  preliminary  experimental  exploration  of  the 
effects  of  as  many  different  types  of  mask  as  may  be  called 
for,  using  a  single  observer,  techniques  that  have  proved 
themselves  useful  in  previous  investigations  of  neuro-muscu- 
lar  condition,  and  sufficient  repetition  to  avoid  gross  chance 
errors. 

"Such  an  exploration  should  discover:  (i)  the  direction 
of  any  gross  disturbances;  (2)  the  kinds  of  measurement  and 
procedure  that  are  likely  to  prove  useful  in  squad  experiments; 
and  (3)  more  or  less  probable  indications  of  especially  desir- 
able and  undesirable  features  of  the  various  masks. 

"Part  2.  From  the  exploration,  it  should  be  possible 
with  military  assistance  to  devise  definitive  military  group 
tests  of  the  relative  satisfactoriness  of  available  masks." 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  143 

In  addition  to  noting  the  effects  of  the  mask  on  various 
forms  of  reaction,  Dodge  made  special  study  of  head  air  space, 
characteristics  of  eye  pieces,  ventilation  of  the  face,  adapta- 
tion and  tolerance,  recovery  of  capacity  after  removal  of  the 
mask,  side  Inspirational  tubes,  the  relation  between  neuro- 
muscular depression  and  the  ability  to  endure  the  mask, 
regulation  of  the  pressure  of  the  head-gear,  gas  mask  sizes, 
the  most  economical  development  of  tolerance  to  gas  mask 
tenancy  of  long  duration,  the  relative  military  value  of  differ- 
ent mask  types  for  long  tenancy,  and  the  effects  of  resistance 
on  tenancy  and  the  performance  of  military  tasks. 

Major  Knight  Dunlap  was  assigned  to  duty  with  the 
Chemical  Warfare  Service  to  continue  and  extend  the  investi- 
gations on  tenancy  of  the  gas  mask  initiated  by  Dodge.  His 
attention  was  confined  in  the  main  to  measurement  of  the 
visual  fields  of  different  types  of  gas  masks  by  an  original 
method  which  dispensed  with  the  head-gears  and  also  to  the 
development  of  a  pneumatic  scheme  for  measuring  relative 
pressures  on  the  head  at  different  parts  of  the  mask.  This 
scheme,  perfected  technically  by  the  Goodrich  Company,  was 
subsequently  applied  to  the  comparison  of  different  types  of 

mask.     It  served  to  show  that  the mask,  even  when 

so  adapted  as  to  be  leak  proof,  exerted  less  pressure,  and  also 
showed  a  more  even  distribution  of  pressure,  than  the  other 
masks  previously  used,  although  the  latter  were  not  free  from 
leaks  even  with  the  higher  pressures  employed. 

Just  prior  to  the  signing  of  the  armistice,  Dunlap  had 
perfected  a  procedure  for  determining  the  effects  of  different 
types  of  masks  on  the  efficiency  of  the  wearer.  He  proposes 
to  continue  this  inquiry  In  his  own  laboratory  in  view  of  the 
practical  value  of  a  perfected  mask  in  certain  civilian  occu- 
pations. 

The  Chemical  Warfare  Service  further  sought  the  ser- 
vices of  the  Psychology  Committee  In  connection  with  the 
problem  of  camouflaging  odors,  and  as  a  result  of  a  conference 
with  Captain  Carleton,  Vice-chairman  Baird  of  the  Psychol- 
ogy Committee  prepared  a  report  In  which  he  summarized 
pertinent  physiological  and  psychological  literature  on  the 


144  REPORT  OF   THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

classification  of  odors,  relationship  of  odors,  and  the  relation 
between  odor  and  chemical  composition  of  substance. 

Despite  the  fact  that  complete  cancellation  seemingly  does 
not  occur,  Baird  concludes  that  the  intensity  of  an  odor  is 
so  far  reduced  by  compensation  as  to  effect  valuable  camou- 
flage. On  the  basis  of  this  practical  inference,  he  recommends 
the  use  of  the  methods  of  fatigue  and  of  cancellation  in  camou- 
flaging. 

The  work  done  by  Dodge,  Baird,  and  Dunlap  demonstra- 
ted the  existence  of  important  psychological  and  physiological 
problems  within  the  Chemical  Warfare  Service  and  the  abil- 
ity of  psychologists  to  speedily  achieve  practical  solution  of 
such  problems  in  the  interests  of  military  efficiency. 

i6.  Psychological  Service  to  the  Committee  on  Education  and 
Special  Training  of  the  War  Department. — Conferences  for 
considering  suitable  methods  for  selecting,  classifying,  and 
placing  men  for  instruction  in  Students'  Army  Training  Corps 
institutions  were  attended  by  representatives  of  the  Psychol- 
ogy Committee,  the  Division  of  Psychology,  Committee  on 
Education  and  Special  Training,  and  the  Committee  on  Class- 
ification of  Personnel.  Thorndike,  Terman,  and  Yerkes  act- 
ing jointly,  decided  to  suggest  to  the  Committee  on  Educa- 
tion and  Special  Training  that  the  army  mental  tests  be 
adapted  to  meet  the  special  requirements  of  the  Students' 
Army  Training  Corps. 

In  a  memorandum  addressed  to  Charles  R.  Mann  of  the 
Committee  on  Education  and  Special  Training,  it  was  recom- 
mended that  L.  M.  Terman  be  designated  to  adapt  methods 
and  to  prepare  plans  for  their  administration  in  connection 
with  the  S.  A.  T.  C.  It  was  further  suggested  that  the  army 
group  examination  for  literates  (the  Alpha  examination)  be 
administered  in  adapted  form  by  the  Committee  on  Education 
and  Special  Training  with  the  advisory  assistance  of  the  Di- 
vision of  Psychology,  Medical  Department  of  the  Army. 

This  recommendation  was  favorably  received  by  the  edu- 
cational committee,  and  Terman  was  promptly  assigned  to 
duty  with  it.  He  immediately  prepared  for  A.  C.  Mnal, 
Director  of  educational   measurements   for   the   Committee, 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  145 

an  adaptation  of  the  Alpha  examination  in  which,  aside  from 
differences  in  directions,  the  principal  modification  was  the 
omission  of  the  reading  by  the  examiner  of  detailed  instruc- 
tions for  the  several  tests.  This  lessened  the  time  available 
for  each  test  by  requiring  the  subject  to  read  the  directions 
for  himself  during  the  period  allowed  in  the  army  form  of  the 
examination  for  actual  performance. 

Having  completed  the  adaptation  of  procedure,  Terman 
presented  army  mental  test  methods  to  members  of  the  edu- 
cational committee  and  also  discussed  their  practical  results. 
This  demonstration  and  exposition  led  to  the  decision  that 
the  Alpha  examination  should  be  universally  used  for  the 
examination  of  the  members  of  the  Students'  Army  Training 
Corps. 

It  had  been  definitely  planned  and  anticipated  that  the 
introduction  of  the  methods  would  be  directed  by  a  few  com- 
petent individuals  employed  by  the  Committee  on  Education, 
and  that  the  actual  conduct  of  the  tests  would  be  left  to  a 
member  of  each  institution  designated  by  the  President. 
Everything  was  in  readiness  for  the  administration  of  tests 
to  the  first  group  of  students  in  the  Students'  Army  Training 
Corps  when  the  signing  of  the  armistice  interrupted  the  work 
of  the  Committee. 

Numerous  institutions  had  meantime  directed  requests 
to  nearby  army  training  camps  that  their  examining  staffs 
representing  the  Division  of  Psychology,  Surgeon  General's 
Office,  make  psychological  examination  of  their  men.  This 
was  impossible  because  the  Division  of  Psychology  had  dele- 
gated responsibility  for  the  conduct  of  mental  tests  to  the 
Committee  on  Education  and  Special  Training. 

After  the  signing  of  the  armistice,  because  of  the  wide- 
spread demand  for  further  information  concerning  army  men- 
tal tests  and  opportunity  to  use  them  in  connection  with  the 
Students'  Army  Training  Corps,  the  Committee  on  Education 
arranged  through  the  Division  of  Psychology  of  the  Surgeon 
General's  Office,  to  supply  copies  of  the  Alpha  examination 
blank  to  such  institutions  as  desired  them.  About  one  hun- 
dred institutions  signified  their  desire  to  use  the  examination. 


146  REPORT  OF   THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

Except  for  numerous  delays,  the  Alpha  examination  would 
have  been  administered  to  all  members  of  the  Students'  Army- 
Training  Corps  during  the  initial  quarter,  and  thereafter  either 
to  applicants  or  to  students  already  enrolled,  for  assistance 
in  connection  with  classification  and  instruction. 

The  work  of  Terman  would  have  been  of  increasing  prac- 
tical value  had  the  Students'  Army  Training  Corps  continued 
in  existence;  but  despite  the  failure  to  bring  the  tests  into 
actual  use,  it  is  clear  that  important  service  was  rendered  by 
acquainting  the  educational  committee,  many  additional 
army  officers,  and  members  of  upwards  of  five  hundred  edu- 
cational institutions,  with  this  method  of  mental  classification. 

17.  Miscellaneous  Work  for  Various  Military  and  Civilian 
Agencies. — L.  L.  Thurstone  of  the  Carnegie  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology carried  on  an  important  investigation  in  the  selection 
and  training  of  telegraphers.  At  the  outset  two  facts  were 
discovered  which  proved  of  far-reaching  significance.  First, 
analysis  of  the  progress  of  drafted  men  in  Class  la  who  were 
preparing  to  enter  the  service  with  some  knowledge  of  teleg- 
raphy showed  that  many  well-educated  men  did  not  succeed 
in  learning  telegraphy  as  well  as  might  have  been  expected 
from  their  general  intelligence  and  education.  Second,  the 
converse  also  proved  true,  that  some  men  of  very  modest  edu- 
cation and  general  ability  found  it  easy  to  learn  the  tele- 
graphic code.  From  these  two  facts  was  drawn  the  initial 
assumption  that  ability  to  learn  the  telegraphic  code  is  a 
special  ability.  A  series  of  tests  were  devised  to  predict  the 
presence  or  absence  of  this  ability,  in  order  that  future  selec- 
tions of  telegraphers  might  be  to  the  best  advantage  of  the 
service  and  the  men.  A  report  on  these  tests  will  be  pub- 
lished in  the  Journal  of  Applied  Psychology. 

Herbert  S.  Langfeld,  during  the  summer  of  1918,  made  an 
official  trip  to  France  to  observe  from  the  point  of  view  of  a 
psychologist  the  personnel  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  His  excellent 
opportunities  to  observe  American  soldiers  in  rest  and  leave 
areas,  in  training  schools,  and  in  trenches,  supplied  materials 
for  a  valuable  report  which,  on  his  return  to  America,  was 
transmitted  to  the  Psychology  Committee  of  the  National 
Research  Council. 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  147 

The  principal  subjects  of  this  report  are:  psychological 
problems  of  morale,  the  aviation  service,  reconstruction, 
shell-shock,  and  camouflage.  In  each  of  these  subjects  Lang- 
feld  made  interesting  and  important  observations  upon  which 
he  bases  suggestions  for  practical  service.  Thus,  for  example, 
in  connection  with  camouflage  work,  he  states  that  one  of  the 
most  interesting  problems,  with  important  psychological  as- 
pects is  the  camouflage  of  motion,  especially  in  relation  to 
aeroplanes.  He  further  reports  that  the  assistance  of  psy- 
chologists was  greatly  desired  by  the  officers  engaged  in  cam- 
ouflage. 

Had  the  war  continued,  Langfeld's  observation  of  condi- 
tions and  his  suggestions  would  undoubtedly  have  led  to  im- 
portant developments  of  psychological  service  overseas. 

In  the  summer  of  191 8  an  American  psychologist  who  had 
observed  conditions  in  Paris  reported  to  the  Psychology  Com- 
mittee that  assistance  might,  in  his  judgment,  be  rendered 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  selecting  suitable  personnel  for  service 
overseas.  The  facts  gathered  by  this  observer  were  trans- 
mitted to  the  Office  of  the  Secretary  of  War  and  as  a  result 
of  careful  consideration  of  the  matter,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  in 
October,  1918,  introduced  the  army  mental  tests  (Group 
Examination  Alpha)  in  all  of  its  special  training  schools  as  a 
supplementary  means  of  eliminating  undesirable  applicants. 
The  Medical  Department  of  the  Army  cooperated  with  these 
training  schools  by  supplying  the  necessary  materials  for 
examinations  and  such  standards  of  judgment  and  other  in- 
formation as  might  prove  of  assistance  to  the  examining  of- 
ficers. 

This  work  was  instituted  at  such  a  late  date  that  results 
of  statistical  value  could  not  be  obtained.  Psychological  ex- 
aminers in  the  army  were  able,  however,  to  render  assistance 
to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  training  camps  and  also  in  a  few  of  the 
special  Y.  M.  C.  A.  training  schools.  Arrangements  had 
been  made  by  the  New  York  headquarters  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
for  the  conduct  of  psychological  examination  of  candidates 
for  overseas  service  by  Robert  S.  Woodworth  of  Columbia 
University.  Approximately  five  hundred  examinations  had 
been  made  before  the  armistice  cut  short  this  work. 


148  REPORT  OF   THE  PSYCHOLOGY  COMMITTEE 

Of  special  interest  is  the  fact  that  the  executive  officers 
of  this  organization,  after  trying  other  methods  of  selection 
to  improve  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  personnel,  decided  that  the  army 
procedure  for  measuring  mental  alertness  should  be  intro- 
duced. 

IV.  Future  Relations  of  Psychology  to  the  National 
Research  Council. 

The  eager  and  effective  cooperation  of  psychologists  in 
professional  war  work  has  enabled  the  Psychology  Committee 
to  win  the  confidence  and  the  hearty  support  of  the  several 
scientific  groups  which  together  constitute  the  Research  Coun- 
cil. Largely  because  of  the  way  in  which  it  responded  to 
the  practical  demands  and  the  opportunities  of  the  military 
emergency,  psychology  today  occupies  a  place  among  the 
natural  sciences  which  is  newly  achieved,  eminently  desirable, 
and  highly  gratifying  to  the  profession.  An  immediate  re- 
sult of  this  improved  status  is  the  desire  of  the  Executive 
Board  of  the  Research  Council  to  have  psychology  adequately 
represented  in  the  permanent  national  organization. 

A  conference  of  psychologists  called  for  the  discussion  of 
the  relations  of  psychology  to  the  organization  of  the  Re- 
search Council,  unanimously  approved  the  inclusion  of  psy- 
chology in  the  national  organization  and  formulated  the 
following  as  a  tentative  statement  of  the  functions  of  the  psy- 
chological section  of  the  Council: 

"i.  Service,  in  an  advisory  capacity,  to  the  Government  and 
its  various  agencies  in  connection,  for  example,  with  psychological 
problems  of  education,  immigration,  civil  service,  military  organi- 
zation, public  health,  and  labor. 

2.  The  stimulation  and  facilitation,  coordination,  conduct  of 
psychological  research. 

"3.  The  furtherance  of  the  international  relations  of  psychology 
and  psychologists  in  the  interests  alike  of  research  and  effective 
instruction. 

"4.  The  study  and  improvement  of  the  status  of  the  relations  of 
psychology  as  science  and  as  technology. 

"5.  Concern  with  such  generally  important  matters  of  psycho- 
logical personnel  as  the  qualifications  of  individuals  for  research 
tasks  and  measures  for  maintaining  and  improving  the  quality  of 
the  professional  personnel." 


I 


OF  THE  NATIONAL  RESEARCH  COUNCIL  149 

It  is  proposed  to  associate  psychology  with  anthropology 
in  a  Division  whose  chairman  and  vice-chairman  shall  be 
I  chosen  alternately  from  the  two  sciences,  a  chairman  from 

I  anthropology  serving  with  a  psychologist  as  vice-chairman  and 

|i  vice  versa. 

I  If  psychology  is  to  meet  successfully  the  now  rapidly  in- 

/  creasing  practical  demands  by  which  it  is  challenged,  it  must 

organize  for  cooperative  endeavor  in  a  way  not  thought  of 
prior  to  the  war.  On  the  one  hand  is  the  imperative  need  of 
highly  developed  and  specialized  methods;  on  the  other,  the 
^  need  for  largely  increased  and  adequately  trained  personnel. 
The  war  activities  of  the  Psychology  Committee  have  re- 
vealed or  created  opportunities  whose  scientific  and  practical 
significance  cannot  be  estimated.  Two  years  ago  mental  en- 
gineering was  the  dream  of  a  few  visionaries.  Today  it  is  a 
branch  of  technology,  which,  although  created  by  the  war,  is 
evidently  to  be  perpetuated  and  fostered  by  education  and 
industry. 

Psychology  needs  therefore  as  never  before  in  its  history 
intimate  association  with  the  more  exact  natural  sciences,  as 
well  as  with  the  biological  sciences  which  are  more  nearly  re- 
lated to  it.  The  support  and  cooperation  of  other  scientists 
and  especially  their  intelligent  interest,  are  indispensable. 

For  the  speedy  and  sound  development  of  psychology  as 
science  and  as  technology,  the  National  Research  Council 
should  prove  the  most  important  of  agencies.  It  is  earnestly 
to  be  desired  that  the  psychologists  of  the  country  may  unite 
in  their  support  of  this  national  organization  for  the  promo- 
tion of  scientific  research,  its  practical  applications,  and  the 
profitable  relations  of  sciences  and  of  scientists. 


,,  V  .uTHERN  REQIONAL  LIBRABV  [^'-^ 


A  A      000  299  694    0 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


SUSJECT  Td 


EDUCATION  LIBRARY 


flAR  2  1  1977 


11  197;' 


QL  OCT  4    198  i 


RECEiVfeiD 

cQ/pRYO-M    t  5f^, 


f^fe:i= 


FINE  IF  NOT  RETURIHED  TQ 


LIBRARY 


QL  JAN  1  G  1364 


IRECEIVED 
^E:    5 '83-2  P^'? 


12  JAN15  13S! 

QL    APR  0  9  19^1 

^ec'dJANlo-9AME. 


Form  L9-116ni-8,'62(D1237s8)444 


1       Gaylord  Bros. 
Makers 

Stockton,  Calif. 


.KliS. 


I 


/ 


UCLA-ED/PSYCh    i.vary 

BF  131  N21r 


L  005  622  726  7 


